Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There is a penalty paid for late changes. It is not just money, it is often in the loss of people.

Ideas spawn ideas. That is the nature of ideas and people. Write something, paint something, sing something, create something so that we can gather and think and create more.

There comes a point, however, where this loses people. Whey do my best when the boss is just going to read it, find his own idea, and tell me to do it all over again. I’ll just do it halfway because we’ll do it all over again anyways.

There go the people. We are wasting their talent. We are getting half efforts and frustrating everyone.

As a manager, do something better. If I want some ideas so that we can discuss and find new ideas, say so. Ask for an outline, a mind map, even some sketches on the white board. Don’t ask someone to write a finished product only to treat it as a sketch to spur thinking. People learn quickly. If the manager is going to toss it out, deliver trash. We don’t want that.

by Dwayne Phillips

An old saying remains true: the later we find a mistake, the more expensive it is to fix.

The later we find a mistake, the more expensive it is to fix. That is an old saying. It is still true.

The saying is most-often attributed to Barry Boehm as he described it in the Cost of Change Curve. Some of us are old enough to remember the writings of Boehm. I actually met him one day at a conference. Nice enough fellow.

From time to time, we pretend that this thought is something old that applied in olden times when we used old technology to solve old problems. We are in a new age with new minds and everything new and, well, old sayings by old men are just old.

Sorry, if we find and fix a problem just prior to shipping our app, it really hurts. The problem has ties to many things and all those things have to be fixed. Well, they don’t have to be fixed, but shipping mistakes bothers some of us to no end.

On shipping day, everything has tentacles. (I just learned that an octopus has arms but no tentacles while a jellyfish has hundreds of tentacles, but I digress.) Some reach too far and too wide. Rats! (more animals) And we just discovered more tentacles. Darn those tentacles. No more dry humor that isn’t humorous.

Dr. Boehm’s thoughts are still correct. The later we find the mistake, the more it costs to correct.

What really hurts sometimes is that it is not a mistake found late. It is a new idea introduced late. Whatever the source, we have a late change, and the later the change the more the expense. Can’t seem to avoid that.

Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

There is time later for thinking deep thoughts. Now, however, is the time to accomplish the work, now.

“We could do this better”—said me, many times.

I know, I know, boy, do I know. We could do this better. “Let’s do better,” is a phrase I often use at the end of these little blog posts. Right now, however, I have something to do—something to do now.

Let’s accomplish now’s work right now. Scribble little notes on the side as reminders that some time after this, I will discuss how to do it better. I will search for better tools that save time and improve quality. I will do that. I will not, however, do that now. Now I will accomplish the work in front of me.

And note how I wrote “I” instead of “we” in the above paragraph. This is MY problem. This is MY solution.

I can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Does panic create focus? Perhaps. Perhaps some of us would just rather avoid panic.

I saw something silly this morning on some society media site. It read:

I don’t procrastinate. I simply wait until sheer panic improves my focus, It’s a highly refined strategy that I have been perfecting for years.

I have known people who lived this. If you didn’t do everything at the last minute in an adrenaline rush, you didn’t earn your pay. Just like the kid in school who started a two-week assignment at 10 p.m. the night before it was due.

I guess there is something wrong with me. Plan the work, work the plan. Work at a steady pace. Avoid panic. Enjoy yourself, work hard, do a good job, and enjoy yourself.

Yes, things happen that are out of our control. Yes, we have to adjust and make up for lost time. Sometimes those things happen near the last minute. Sometimes is some of the time—not all the time. Sometimes is not a plan and not a strategy.

I may prefer to do it all at the last minute “pulling an all nighter.” I am not the only person involved. Others have family commitments. My panic does not serve their families. Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s revise that one more time. Okay, but will it be better or just different?

Revisions. Edits. That is what writers do. Many prescribe to the notion that the first draft is practically nothing. The real work of the writer begins when the revising and editing begin. And how many revisions finish the writing?

Let’s revise it one more time. I just thought of something different. Let’s put that different idea in there. Okay, done. But wait, one more…

Each revision makes the piece different. Does each revision make the piece better or just different? Perhaps it was already good enough. Perhaps it was already good. Perhaps just one more idea, just one more edit, just one more go through this only results in one more patch stuck to the top of a pile of patches.

Perhaps it was good at the end of the first draft. That may sound sacrilegious to some teachers of writing. Sometimes, however, the fresh idea written carefully is the best idea and results in the best piece. Let’s consider that sometimes. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

I like to plan my work and work my plan. Sometimes, however, thoughts hit me and that plan gets all jumbled up. Plan for, “I just thought of something.”

I like to plan and work the plan. I like process. I like procedure. Let’s do this before that. Why? The past has shown me that this before that saves time and effort and blood, sweat, and tears and all that.

And then, “I just thought of something. Wait, stop, listen to this. This is a better idea for what we are doing. Let’s stop what we are doing and do this instead.”

That happens sometimes. The new thought is much better than the thought I had a month ago. That old thought is driving this plan. I can figure a way to wiggle the new thought into the plan we are executing and squeeze a bit here and there and …

NOPE. STOP. START OVER. Use the new idea in the plan from the beginning.

Well, that’s not good either. What of all the waste and blood, sweat, and tears?

Okay, combine everything, plan for, “I just thought of something.”

The plan has loops and feedback and spirals or whatever term we want to use to build flexibility into the plan. Let’s acknowledge that our plan was based on the best of intentions and thoughts and that smart people have new ideas. Let’s put places in the plan where we can use new thoughts and new ideas.

Plans can be fluid. We can do this. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

I express a bit of angst over the use of “geo.”

This post may mean nothing to everyone else in the world, but I have to get it out of my system.

I have been overwhelmed with the use of the term geo the past ten years. Just my personal problem, but his is my personal blog, so here goes.

Definition: geo, relating to the earth. Okay. Got that. No problem with that.

Let’s try the term geolocate. That means to locate something on the earth, which is otherwise known as “locate.” Why do folks say “geolocate?” I guess they sound smarter and are paid more money for saying “geolocate.”

Next we have geospatial.

Definition: spatial, relating to or occupying space.

Okay, let’s combine geo and spatial to have occupying space on the earth. Hmm, I am geospatial as I sit here in the coffee shop typing these words. Good for me.

Then we go to geospatial intelligence or GEOINT. Everyone does GEOINT. If you don’t have 20 years experience in GEOINT you can’t get a job in some neighborhoods. So GEOINT is intelligence or knowledge about occupying space on the earth. In other words, where are you?

Why don’t we just ask, “Where are you?” Again, GEOINT sounds smarter and causes more money to flow.

Again, my blog—my rant.

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems there is a fundamental misunderstanding about the product of research.

There seems to be a misunderstanding about the product of research. I saw this article about risk in research. The idea is that researchers are often risky. Huh?

Risk management asks, “What could possibly go wrong?”

That is something we do when managing a project that is supposed to produce a system, service, or something like that. Build a new car in six months. Whoa, that isn’t much time for that task. What are the risks? There are many things that could go wrong given the short span of time for that task.

Now let’s move to research. Let’s try a new idea on an old problem. We are trying to produce a system, service, or something like that. We are trying to understand if the new idea works on the old problem. What might be wrong with the new idea? Many things. Let’s try it and see.

I research: I try a new idea on an old problem. The idea doesn’t work. That is successful research. We learned that this idea doesn’t work. Great. Let’s use that knowledge. For example, we have learned that standing on the top of a step ladder is dangerous. That idea for gaining more height failed. The knowledge of that failure and danger is good. We know not to do that.

Trying new ideas on old problems when the ideas fail is not risk. That is good research. It seems that the people at that publication I linked would know that by now. Shame on them for not understanding research and risk.

by Dwayne Phillips

We are in a hurry. We still need to do this well.

Basketball coach John Wooden, his UCLA teams won 10 national championships, had many sayings. One was, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

Hurry means to move or act with great haste. There is some implication in there about moving or acting so fast that mistakes are bound to happen. (Mistakes often happen when going slowly, but that is another thought for another day.)

Then there is be quick. I like to be quick. I like to get things done in a short span of time. Sometimes we have work to be accomplished and due to circumstances beyond our control, we have an extra-short span of time.

HURRY UP!

Well, maybe not. Hurry tends to restrict breathing. Restricted breathing tends to limit oxygen intake. Lack of oxygen tends to restrict thinking. Restricted thinking, well, that’s just not good.

Count to five slowly and breathe slowly while counting. Now, what is it we needed to do in an extra-short span of time? Oh, that. Okay. Let’s do it well.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes it is best to go back to the old practice of putting everything on a wall so we can see the entire thing.

We used to do this. We would print a document and tape the entire thing to a wall. We would walk along the wall and glance back and forth over a distance of pages. We could see the entire thing. We could ensure things flowed and connected. We did pretty well.

“Oh, but now we have better technology. We have fill-in-the-blank-with-a-newer-computer-technology,” says another person with an encouraging smile.

“Yes, but I can only see half a page at a time on my computer screen,” says me with disappointment in my voice.

I read a statement. Hmm. That sounds like something I read somewhere else. Where was that? Search, find, oh, here it is. Why is it repeated? I don’t know. I can’t see enough of the document.

I once taped the framework of a book on a wall. I wrote that book. It sold well. That technique worked. All in the past. Perhaps I am just too old for this stuff. Or perhaps, we could do better.