Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips This is what the people who steer the money want from AI or anything else. We don’t want AI to do the dishes and the laundry. Well, most of us want these things, but the people who steer the money, i.e., the CEO folks, want answers to their big questions. Big questions […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is a tried and true method of gathering requirements and specifying systems. Imagine you had a thousand assistants. There are various methods of gathering requirements and specifying systems. A basic one is to imagine a thousands assistants awaiting your request. If you had a thousand assistants, what would you have them […]

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by Dwayne Phillips For those who have the resources to choose the problems for those who can solve them, please, choose wisely. Smart scientists, engineers, and problem solvers abound. Well, maybe not abound, but given the population of the earth, there are millions of these folks. What problems are they trying to solve? Rocket engines? […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When we build systems, build them to do and have no more and no less than we intend. A few pseudo definitions: The users says, “I want a system that does this and that is and like this and that.” The builders say among themselves, “We can do those things and a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Find the right question. The answer will direct efforts. That is pretty basic, but it seems to work. The purpose of this blog post is… Well, let me struggle with the rest of that sentence. In my struggles, let me find the right question. How about, “Why would anyone read this?” or […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is yet another fundamental to providing systems that delight users. Have we validated that we verified before vacation? Or is it the other way around? There was a time when verification and validation were so commonly used that we called it “V&V.” Then we wanted independent persons to perform V&V so […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I take the time to describe an old tool that helps us do what is asked. There is room for doing more, but we should at least do what is asked. There is an old tool called a compliance matrix. For mathematicians, I apologize for the word “matrix” as this is a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Doing something that goes beyond what is required often leads to discovery, and discovery may be a wonderful unintended result. Many years ago (in the last century), I was involved in an upgrade to an existing system. There were new requirements that required new capabilities. Some of the computing hardware was to […]

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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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by Dwayne Phillips The humble light bulb reminds us that we want good things, but “good” changes depending on the person and the purpose. The light bulb is going to save the planet. Perhaps destroy it. I confuse the two sometimes. The incandescent bulb is inefficient. It is if we are considering the amount of […]

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