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Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Entries from April 2017

What are We Doing Here?

April 27th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Another fundamental question in systems engineering. Like the rest of the questions, ask with caution. Ever ask the titular question at work? Ever ask it out loud and expect an answer? Perhaps you are a systems engineer. Perhaps your workplace needs a systems engineer. The question seeks to find the reason behind […]

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Tags: Analysis · General Systems Thinking · Questions · Systems

Ready, Fire, Aim—or something like that

April 24th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we have to stop, go back to basics, and learn what we are trying to do before we try to do it. Stupid, right? How in the world could I run off and start working before knowing what it is I am supposed to do? Trust. Someone I trusted told me […]

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Tags: Analysis · Clarity · Work

The Steam Roller—What’s in a Name?

April 20th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We still refer to the steam roller even though no one has one such a machine in over a hundred years. So what? Maybe something important. We once used steam rollers to flatten things. They had a steam engine for power. They weighed a lot. They were effective. We quit using steam […]

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Tags: Communication

The Commissioned Trade Study

April 17th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The follies and pitfalls of a trade study. One of the more wasteful things governments, persons who work for governments, do is commission a trade study. Go forth, study something, and report back to us. Time passes. Persons run about asking questions and reading readings. The money flows. Keyboards clickety-clack, spots appear […]

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Tags: Analysis · Communication · Customer · Expectations

The Opposite of Synergy—Yet Another Example

April 13th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Often, the individual members of a group don’t understand what the group has decided. This is wonderful. I found a discussion online where persons who care about words were trying to invent a word for the opposite of synergy. No one suggested the obvious—the US Congress. Politics aside, or maybe politics of […]

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Tags: Communication · Competence · Decide

The Condescending Robot (Employer)

April 10th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A new high or low in robots in the warehouse. I find this one fascinating. This warehouse “robot” walks a human to the right spot in the cavern of products. The touchscreen shows the human what product to load in the bin. Hence, the robot knows where the product is and how […]

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Tags: Adults · Technology · Work

The Mythical Shortage of fill-in-the-blank-persons

April 6th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Shortage of qualified applicants? A myth. Here is one of the explanations. Sorry if this exposes what you wear under your kilt. There is a shortage of… qualified programmers qualified analysts qualified engineers qualified qualifiers that is why we want more fill-in-the-blank-with-magical-government-magic. Listen to what companies say: “We can’t find qualified fill-in-the-blank-persons.” […]

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Tags: Employment · People

March Madness

April 3rd, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I used to love the NCAA basketball tournament. Perhaps it is only for the young. The NCAA men’s basketball championship game will be played tonight. I won’t watch it as the game won’t start until after I go to bed on the east coast. It starts late in the east as that […]

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Tags: Adults · America · Childhood