Numerical strategies for quantum tomography: Alternatives to full optimization

We examine a variety of strategies for numerical quantum-state estimation from data of the sort commonly measured in experiments involving quantum-state tomography. We find that, in some important circumstances, an elaborate and time-consuming numerical optimization to obtain the optimum density matrix corresponding to a given data set is not necessary and that cruder, faster numerical techniques may well be sufficient; in other words, ``the best'' is the enemy of ``good enough.''