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Entries Tagged as 'General Systems Thinking'

Right Problem, Wrong Method, or was It the Other Way Around?

January 28th, 2010 · 1 Comment

by Dwayne Phillips
There are problems and there are methods of solving them. Given these two items, there are four cases that can define projects. Let’s consider the cases and how to avoid the more painful ones.
In some of my books I have written about projects that went astray, i.e. they were disasters with money and [...]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Management · Problems

Improving the Work

January 25th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips
Systems builders should concentrate on one thing - improving the work of the people who will use the system.
Sometimes we lose sight of what we are doing. We build systems. Why? Well, to make money for our employer. We hope the system makes money for the organization that uses it. This is about [...]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Systems

Paying the Tuition and (Maybe) Getting the Education

January 6th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips
Life is full of bad experiences. There is always something that can be learned in each experience. The bad experience is a form of tuition. The learning is a form of education. Nothing guarantees we get the education with the tuition. The education, however, is there for our choosing.
College is pretty simple: you [...]

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Tags: Change · Choose · General Systems Thinking · Learning

Technical Debt

December 14th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips
Technical debt in a system builds as changes are made to the system. At some point, the expense and risk of the next change is prohibitive.
This is the first post I will make about fill-in-the-blank debt. These all go back to the concept of technical debt in a technical system.
Systems that are used [...]

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Tags: Design · General Systems Thinking · Technical Debt

Adapting and Adaptability

November 16th, 2009 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips
Situations change and people adapt to those changes. Has adapting to chance taken away your  ability to adapt?
Change is constant
Okay, that is neither original nor brilliant. It does, however, describe my experiences.
Groups of people adapt
Another observation that is neither original nor brilliant.
What many people fail to observe is how to have groups of [...]

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Tags: Adapting · Change · General Systems Thinking