by Dwayne Phillips We often use the vocabulary and ceremonies of a prescribed practice without actually doing anything worthwhile. Daily standup, peer review, prototype, minimum viable product, agility, AI, agent, etc.: examples of vocabulary that makes it appear as if something good is happening. Do they have a minimum viable product? Is there product much […]
Vocabulary and Ceremonies
February 29th, 2024 · No Comments
Tags: Communication · Honesty · Practice · Process · Vocabulary · Work
Lab Projects and Real Products
February 19th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Take care when confusing lab projects with real products. Both are good, but they are not the same. In all fields of endeavor, we have lab projects and real products. Both can be good. They, however, are not the same. Sometimes product managers and marketers confuse these at their peril. Students in […]
Tags: Accountability · Engineering · Experiment · Management · Process
Rehearsing for the Rehearsal
August 28th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There is the meta-plan or the plan about the plan. There is the meta-rehearsal or the rehearsal for the rehearsal. There are many other meta-this-and-that. They are quite useful. My wife and I have been married since 1983 (40 years as of the writing of this post). I recall our wedding rehearsal. […]
Tags: Learning · Management · Patterns · Planning · Practice · Process · Review · Success · Thinking · Work
The Simplest Thing
June 12th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips New problem? Need a new solution. First, try the simplest thing. It happened again at work the other day. We have a new problem (new day, new problem). We need a new solution. What will we do? Hmmm, there are so many options. Each option with its good things and bad things […]
Tags: General Systems Thinking · Leadership · Problems · Process · Solutions · Thinking
The Experts and the Rest of Us
June 5th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The experts devise a better way to do things. The rest of us attempt to follow their expert lead. We flop. Object-oriented programming flopped. Microservices and serverless computing flopped. I guess I could think of a few other great ideas that flopped. How about teaching kids to read via that total method […]
Tags: Choose · Expertise · Failure · Fatigue · Learning · Process
The Problem, the Solution, and Focus
January 16th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We can focus on only one thing at a time. That is part of the definition of “focus.” There are ideas for shifting focus that work pretty well. I can focus on one thing at a time. That is what “focus” means—one thing at a time. Am I focusing on the problem […]
Tags: Problems · Process · Solutions · Technology · Tools
One Thing at a Time
January 12th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips How to you accomplish a big task? One thing at a time. Sorry, I wish there were magic here, but I have yet to see any of that. I recently removed 6,000 pounds of items from a home. Given each item weighed half a pound on average, that is … a whole […]
Tags: Concepts · General Systems Thinking · Lifecycle · Problems · Process · Solutions
The “Take a Week” Writing Technique
October 10th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, if you wait a week before writing something, you can write it well and quickly. Here is a writing technique that works for me. Try it; it may work for you. I think about something for a week. No great concentration, but thinking now and then, off and on, having conversations […]
Tags: Communication · Process · Writing
What will This Tell Us?
September 29th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Most tasks provide us with something and information. Often the information is more important than the something. Often the information is something we already know. If that is the case, skip the task. Testing is a task that provides information. Well let’s back up: a good test provides information we can use. […]
Tags: Communication · Design · Information · Learning · Process · Testing
When Text Became Number Crunching
September 5th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The number crunchers now rule the world. How did that happen? Many years ago I was a number cruncher. I did then what people still call “digital signal processing.” We took analog signals, magically made them numbers in computers via gadgets called analog-to-digital converters or A/D converters, and happily applied digital approximations […]
Tags: Analysis · Approximation · Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Engineering · History · Machine Learning · Process