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

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Entries from June 2016

Agile Development and Being a Victim

June 30th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A major part of the agile methods is that we refuse to be victims. In agile development, persons talk face to face and speak candidly. There are no bureaucratic victims. There is no, “Look, I know doing X this way doesn’t make sense, but we are required to do so by some […]

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Tags: Adults · Agility

An Idea Person

June 27th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is the great idea, then there is the great execution that brings the idea to fruition. In my experience, the idea is greatly over valued. I worked 28 years inside government. I was bombarded with examples of, “Oh, so-and-so is a great idea person. We need you to work all the […]

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Tags: Government · Ideas

The Catalog Readers

June 23rd, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We give new titles to an old profession. Back in the last decade of the prior century, I met several people at work who had one skill: They could read a product catalog. They would read the catalogs from DEC, Sun, IBM, and even Dell. They would proclaim, “Look what is out […]

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Tags: Analysis · Computing · Design

Do You Have a Mobile App for That?

June 20th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Every era has its own stupid question. Ours is no different. The title of this post is the stupid question of our era. Back in the day, if you said you have a computer that had the performance of a Cray, was the size of a shoe box, cost $100 and so […]

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Tags: Technology

Synergy: Are You Averaging or Multiplying

June 16th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Instead of averaging, trying multiplying to judge the effectiveness of your group. We tend to average things. I’m not sure why, but it seems to make sense. Consider a team of four people. We assign the ability of each person a number: 1.2, 1.0, 0.7, and 1.1. The average of these four […]

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Tags: Synergy

The One Letter to Use and the Two to Avoid

June 13th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When talking with others, it helps to use one letter of the alphabet and avoid using two others. The one letter to use: I This comes from the old adage, “speak for yourself.” That is harder than it seems as smart people (like me) know so much we are qualified to speak […]

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Tags: Communication · Word

Significant Digits: Another Forgotten Fundamental

June 9th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Regardless of what Excel tells us, significant digits (remember that?) tells us otherwise. Recall something called significant digits from high school math? Consider calculating something with two numbers. One number has two digits while the other number has three digits. The answer can only have two digits. For example, 23 x 123 […]

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Tags: Analysis · Clarity · Computing · Estimation · General Systems Thinking

Magic in Fantasy Land (management)

June 6th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Magic happens in fairy tales, not real life. Stop wishing for it to appear. Do the work instead. I don’t want to manage the work and lead the people. I want magic to happen. I want someone to create a self-managing organization. oooh aaah this is special. Grow up folks. Magic is […]

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Tags: Management

They are My Customer, but not My Teacher

June 2nd, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips My customer pays me for a product or a service. I provide it. I do not, however, have to allow my customer to be my teacher. My customer is my customer. They pay me for a product or a service, and I provide that. However, I don’t have to: act like they […]

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Tags: Choose · Customer · Learning