1. A method of assessing the cost tradeoffs associated with performing inspection, comprising: determining measurement variations and product characteristic variations to define an inspection plane; dividing the inspection plane into a plurality of regions corresponding to respective different outcomes resulting from an inspection process; determining the probability of each outcome based on a probability mass in each region of the inspection plane, wherein the probability mass is based on a joint probability density of the measurement and product characteristic variations; associating costs to various outcomes based on the inspection process; and computing overall costs of the inspection process by using the associated costs and the determined probability of each outcome based on the regions of the inspection plane.