Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Work'

Flowers and Chocolate

January 14th, 2013 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It is often the case that you accomplish more work by attempting less work. At the same time, you can be a pretty decent person. Several years ago, I worked as the technical lead overseeing government contracts. I worked with a Contracting Officer (CO), who monitored the legal aspects of the contracts. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Culture · Work

Working Fast

November 19th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Embarrassed but harangued, I reveal how I do some things on the computer so darn fast. I am not enjoying writing this post. It is about how I manage to do things quickly on the computer. As odd as it sounds (to me at least), people accuse me of working too quickly […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Employment · Work

Setting Limits on Tasks

October 29th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some tasks don’t deserve a lot of time to complete, despite how much time I would like to devote to them. I find items that limit my time on task. Some tasks are worth only so much time. Regardless of how much I like the task or how much I feel the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Design · Work

Lurking in the Hall

October 22nd, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In the hall, in the dark corners that cannot be seen by humans, lurks a monster. We, or us, know the monster. It goes by the name “they” or “them.” I suppose this post goes under the category of “something that happens almost daily when ‘we’ talk about our problems.” Someone is […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Health · People · Work

Work Redefined – Workers, too

October 18th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The definition of work is changing with more people forming distant, loosely connected teams. This requires people who can understand not only the words but the intent of a writer and a speaker. Here is a new definition of work: Work is something we do, not somewhere we go. For years, the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Change · Communication · Work

Knowing What You are Doing

August 13th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is no substitute for knowing what you are doing. I love working with people who know what they are doing. They come to the workplace, see challenges in front of them, and eagerly plow into the work. Short pause – I don’t live in LaLaLand. I live and work in the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Learning · Work

The Ideal Co-Workers

August 9th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find there are three characteristics I want to see in the people who work with me. There are three things I want to see in the people who work with me: They know what they are doing They have the self-discipline to do it They have the courage to tell the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: People · Work

Less Work, More Success

June 28th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If you manage software development, here is a tip for success: write less software. The above tip for success doesn’t make much sense at first, but humor me by reading the following story (a true story). Once I worked in government, and we hired a company to write software for us. The […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Management · Work

Remember the Chaos

February 9th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Every new thing involves a change. A period of chaos comes with every change. If the new thing is to be short-lived, the chaos may require a large percentage of time relative to the short-lived activity. A colleague noted that the estimates for short tasks were often incorrect by large percentages. Here […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Change · Estimation · Work

If It’s Different…

September 20th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Technical projects have plenty of opportunities to misunderstand what someone else is doing. Help yourself. If something is different, give it a different name. This is a post about a part of configuration management. But don’t stop reading yet. This makes sense and is not painful. Things change in technical projects. Software […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Management · Process · Work