Latest
27 June 2009 - I have written another E-mail Advisor for Cutter IT. It is about Plans, Planning, and other Types of Engagement.
26 May 2009 - Two things to note. First, I have been learning to program in Java. That is a carry on from learning some Python recently. Second, I have been on Twitter for a few months now under the name - ready for this - DwaynePhillips. My Twitter-ing has nothing to do with the Oprah lady. About nine months back I recommended Twitter to my employer as a means of emergency communication (for which it excels). As usual, that fell on deaf ears.
30 April 2009 - I've been too busy to update this section of the site. I have spent much of my time learning to program in Python. This is an effort to keep up with my son who is taking such a class in college. Part of this is fun and part discouraging as CSC teachers in college aren't any better at making assignments than they were 30 years ago. Also, I continue to post on my daybook each day and my Working Up blog a couple times a week.
2 April 2009 - I wrote a piece for the Cutter IT E-Mail Adviser on The Curse of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf)
29 March 2009 - I learned to work in Photosynth. I put a synth of my "office" here.
Books
I have a new book coming in 2008 on project management. It is
titled "Working Up to Project Management:
How Crushing Rocks at the Asphalt Plant Prepared Me for Government
Work."
(ISBN: 978-0-932633-66-8, 224 pages softcover)
It is available from
Dorset House Publishing at
this spot
on their web site
Roy O'Bryan and I have written It Sounded Good When We Started. It contains stories and lessons learned from working with people on projects over the years. We think project managers can benefit from our mistakes.
In addition, I have written The Software Project Manager's Handbook now out in it's second edition. It contains information I have learned over the years about managing software projects of all sorts and sizes. The IEEE Computer Society published this book.
These two books are available at http://computer.org and www.wiley.com/ieeecs. Amazon (http://www.amazon.com) and Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com) also sell them.
I wrote Image Processing in C.
It discusses many topics in image processing.
It is loaded with source code. R&D Publishing
(http://rdbooks.com)
published this in 1994.
The second edition of this book is available in electronic form from me on a CD-ROM. Send me an e-mail for details.
Systems Engineering Manuscript
I wrote a manuscript for a text on Systems Engineering. Most books on Systems Engineering are 500+ pages long and cost over $150. My book is to be less than 200 pages and priced less than $50. It covers the essential practices and skills of Systems Engineering. Three publishers are considering the book as of July 2008. If you are a publisher or you know of a publisher who may be interested, please let me know by email. d.phillips@computer.org
Blogs
I have several blogs.
- Working Up where I share thoughts on project management, systems engineering, technology, and writing.
- My day book patterned after Jerry Pournelle's view. It contains daily entries of items I have found of interest.
- In 2008, I wrote 53 shorts stories (one per week). The last of these are linked here.
- Taking a Walk - walking from Northern Virginia to Southeastern Louisiana. By November 2008 we had made it half way. I hope to resume the walk in 2009.
Reviews
Here are a few books and other publications I have read and reviewed:- A book review of Scott Berkun's Making Things Happen.
- A book review of Jerry Weinberg's Perfect Software and other illusions about testing.
- A book review of Jerry Weinberg's The Aremac Project.
- A book review of Andrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies.
- A book
review of
The Art of Lean
Software Development
Other Publications
I have also written a number of other articles. Complete list of publications.
See my Travel Blog posts I spend a lot of time traveling as part of my job. I have written a couple of essays about traveling. I hope you enjoy them.
Some have appeared in The Cutter IT Journal The Cutter IT Journal (formerly American Programmer). (see www.cutter.com).
Some have appeared in the Cutter IT e-mail Advisor (see www.cutter.com).
I wrote a series of articles image processing as well as other programming papers for The C/C++ Users Journal in the 1990s.
I wrote a couple of editorials for The Open Channel page of IEEE's Computer. (see www.computer.org)
The Cutter IT Journal:
An IDEA to Satisfy PeopleBack to the Basics: Metrics that Work for Software Projects
How People Drive the Outsourcing Process (Sometimes Off the Road)
Show Me How to do That: "Just Enough" Software Process for the 21st Century
How to Make a V-Shaped Spiral -- and Vice Versa
Using Architecture to Save Intellectual Property
Configuration Management: The Rule Book for Complex Projects
People, Process, and Product
The Cutter IT E-Mail Advisor:
Plans, Planning, and other Types of Engagement
The Curse of COTS
Resisting the Technology Imperative
Urban Legends (At Work)
A Crippling Comment
Free Time
Advances from Suffering from Mistakes
The Most Important One Second
Drill Down vs Picking Nits: A Management Technique
An Afternoon in a Hospital Waiting Room
Celebrations - A Tribute to the People at Virginia Tech University
A Manager's Metric: The Employee Weigh-In
Just One, More, Little Change
I Thought They Knew What They Were Doing
No One Would Do That! or Why Engineers Should Attend Budget Meetings
Introductions
Maternity Leave, Surfing, and Long Walks
A Peculiar Project
Key Moments in Projects
No Surprises
Good Old Project Management
Summer Jigsaw Puzzles and Project Management
Returning to Some Fundamentals
Frankenstein at Work
Process: Antiprocess
Plan for Success, then Plan for the Blues
Don't Forget to Breathe
Working Out of the Comfort Zone
Let Someone Else Test It
Let Me Just Do It: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The Most Important Project in Anyone's Career
Some Thoughts on Requirements Management
Risk Management: We Need to Change the Name
On Second Thought
The Healthy Skeptic
A Quick Cure for Painful Document Writing
Risk Management: We Need to Change the Name
Negative Synergy
Let Us Pause to Reconsider (Again)
The Words We Use
Messages: Judging Them or using Them
Working During a Community Crisis
Extreme System Failures
Derived Requirements
It Matters What You Say, or It's Alive An Employee Awakens
The Free Bagel Measure of Project Health
Dedication Requires Good Management
The Open Channel of IEEE's Computer
Technocentrism
Is Your Project a Dilbert Cartoon?
Travel Essays
Summer TravelPOSH Travel Still Exists
Full Airplanes
About
My name is Dwayne Phillips. I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. and have worked for the U.S. government as a systems and computer engineer since 1980. One of my avocations is writing about technical subjects.
d.phillips@computer.org