Working Up

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

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Entries from August 2017

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do

August 31st, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This paraphrase from Through the Looking Class continues to reign in systems development. The title of this post is a famous paraphrase from the classic Through the Looking Glass. I live it most days. The conversation goes something like this: Me: The system won’t do such-and-such. Builder: Of course not. It wasn’t […]

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Tags: Adults · Agility · Commitment · Communication · Scope · Systems · Work

The Hostile and Friendly Audiences

August 28th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A speaker can lead an accepting or friendly audience just about anywhere. Hostile audiences, however, can uncover holes in thought. I recommend the questioning group—especially when the stakes are high. It was a senior-level course in Electrical Engineering. The teacher, I can’t recall his name, but I do remember that he didn’t […]

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Tags: Adults · Learning · Questions

The Folly of the Birth Certificate

August 24th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Basing decisions on a person’s age is a bad practice and always has been. Individual persons are  just that—individual persons. Groups have tendencies. Oh the horror of that statement, but it has some truth behind it. One of the greater follies of this post (post(post)) modern era is that of the “digital […]

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Tags: Culture · Differences · Expectations · Generation Y

Gone with the Self-Driving Car

August 21st, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A little future prediction about what we used to call automobiles. When the self-driving car actually arrives. We will no longer have: Rear-view mirrors – we’ll have lots of sensors “looking” in all directions. Steering wheel – what would we do with that? Front-facing seats – car interiors will be rectangles that […]

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Tags: Technology · Time

Knowledge Management in Real Life

August 17th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Want to see knowledge management in action? Go to, of all places, the library. No, we won’t go to the library to find a book all about knowledge management. We will go to the library to see knowledge management in real life. Look about. We are surrounded by reusable modules of knowledge […]

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Tags: Knowledge · Library · Management

Fundamentals – Yet Another Part of an Unending Story

August 14th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It has reached the point where I don’t even ask anymore. Working systems is so much important than documentation, that…well, you know. Situation: Someone has a horrible problem. Someone else has asked them to do something that they simply cannot do. Someone asks me to look at this. Me: Please show me…any […]

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Tags: Communication · Management

Forward to the Past

August 10th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Once again, our new “technology” brings us back to where we started a few decades ago. Recently… I walk into Starbucks. And there is a long line. So I sit in my usual spot and start my Internet work. I order my coffee and bagel on my phone. Five minutes into work […]

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Tags: Change · Childhood · Choose · Technology

Please Don’t Answer My Question

August 7th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Why is it that people ask questions when they don’t want to hear the answers? Let’s go in reverse order here. Result: Dead silence. My Answer: I want to work with good, smart people on difficult problems whose solution enhances national security. Recruiter’s Question: What is it you like to do? What […]

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Tags: Adults · Communication · Questions · Reaction

The Tides and Decisions

August 3rd, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes people decide simply on what washes in and out with the tide. It works sometimes, but I don’t recommend it. The tide comes in. It carries things, deposits them on the beach, and it goes out. The tide comes in. It picks up what is on the beach, and carries it […]

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Tags: Choose · Decide · Management