Working Up

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

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Problems to Solve

January 5th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips What problems do we want to solve? The simpler are usually the more difficult and more important. “World hunger,” has been the answer for beauty queens and scholars my entire life. That was the answer to the problem we should solve. The trouble is, world hunger was solved a hundred years ago. […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Problems · Solutions · Teaching

Scale or Interest?

August 15th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This solution didn’t scale, so we stopped using it when it hit its limit. Perhaps the actual explanation is that we lost interest in this solution, so we stopped using it when we became tire of it. There are many occasions when a new system works when it is new. Everyone is […]

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Tags: Expectations · Fatigue · Management · Problems · Scale · Solutions

Shortcuts (I Hope Nothing Terrible Happens)

June 27th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Recent fueling tests at NASA once again show us the peril of shortcuts. NASA recently completed a fueling test for its Space Launch System. Good for them. Test completed. The story in the link is a good one as it describes several things that went wrong while fueling. One of the problems […]

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Tags: Problems · Risk · Testing

The Next Great Solution or Problem

March 14th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Someone will take the next great solution and turn it into the next great problem. I am pretty sure that today someone will arrive with the next great solution. That will solve some great problem that has plagued us far longer than plaguing should have plagued us. Then, some time after now, […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Problems · Solutions

What is Wrong with This?

September 27th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If I cannot think of three things wrong with my latest great idea, I am not thinking enough. Great ideas. I get lots of ’em. Great successes? Not so many. And why not? Because most of my “great ideas” have problems, many problems. If I spent a little time trying to find […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Ideas · Problems · Thinking

Solution Probleming

June 28th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we find a small shiny object that we R E A L L Y want. Then we go about finding problems that it will solve. Yikes. Here is the traditional or accepted way to solve a problem: State the problem State several solutions to the problem Pick the “best” solution Go […]

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Tags: Design · Problems · Process · Requirements

The Uninvested Assistant

March 18th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When problems occur in complex online presentations, those involved struggle to fix the problems. They are invested in the presentation. That investment inhibits thinking. Always bring along an uninvested assistant. I have participated in countless ZoomerTeamer meetings in the past year. Some were simpleā€”a daily chat with a small team of colleagues. […]

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Tags: Breathe · Fear · Judgment · Problems · Thinking

Bias in AI or Just Another Bad Idea?

February 18th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Once again, someone creates all sorts of fancy explanations for what was simply a bad idea poorly conducted. There seems to be a lot of “bias” in the machine learning area of artificial intelligence research and practice. Or can we explain the problems without using such fancy terms like “bias?” What were […]

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Tags: Analysis · General Systems Thinking · Management · Problems · Process · Science · Systems

The Dragon Slayer Award

October 5th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In which we reward folks for solving problems, but we don’t ask about how the problem arrived or who created it. This is an old story told to me by a long-retired colleague. There was once this big contract that lasted several years. At the monthly review, the project manager for the […]

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Tags: Myth · Problems

Big(ger) Data

July 30th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some people work on big data. The rest of us find value by working on data that is bigger than we can understand without some hand-crafted tools. For about two years I worked on a BIG DATA project. Well, that is how it was touted. BIG DATA was a cool name that […]

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Tags: Analysis · Data Science · Problems · Programming · Science