Excellent discussion. One of the problems with the construct of "the experiment" is that it is really difficult to know when it is "done". I try to get my students to bring them to completion as quickly as possible but new information can come many weeks or months later. This can be new characterization data (x-ray crystal structure for example) or an error was discovered (the starting material turned out to be bad for example). Also the most interesting result may have nothing to do with the stated objective - so the hypothesis model of science doesn't always play out neatly. This is why I favor a results-oriented approach, where each result can be plucked out and archived on its own merits, completely independent of what happens later on in the experiment. In my lab that is typically an image of the reaction in progress but it could also be an NMR, the mass of product isolated, etc. That way results can be used for any type of analysis, without waiting for other parts of the experiment to be completed.