Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Excellent Maintenance or No Maintenance Required

February 20th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Excellent maintenance sometimes indicates a faulty product or service. Sometimes, no maintenance indicates a superior product or service. I first encountered this over 20 years ago. We had purchased similar products from two companies, let’s call them Smith Inc. and Jones Inc. for now. The conversation went something like… “What happens when […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Customer · Failure

Analysis—The Difference that Makes a Difference

February 9th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Analysts seek to find the difference that makes a difference. What can be vexing is that often there is no final difference. I believe that technical analysis and the analysis of technical systems comes to one question: What is the difference that makes a difference? Is it temperature that makes one system […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis

Systems Engineering—Opening the Black Boxes

January 30th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One function of systems engineering is to open the black boxes, look at the entire system, and apply some wisdom. We often build systems by connecting existing systems and subsystems. These existing pieces are black boxes, i.e., we don’t know or don’t care to know what is inside them and how they […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adults · Analysis · Engineering · Systems · Technical Debt

Black Box Analysis

December 15th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips What does this thing do? Exploring the question is the act of analyzing a black box. Reveal the results of black box analysis carefully. I often encounter systems for which I have no knowledge of their inner workings. Airline reservations, online retail, job listings and applications, etc. I don’t know how they […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis

The Cheapest Part

August 8th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the cheapest and simplest part of a system is the one that fails and you may have to buy half a dozen of them to find one that works. I had a bad experience repairing that large appliance in the bathroom. Did you know that you can crawl under a toilet? […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adapting · Agility · Analysis · Systems

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Computing · Design

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 […]

[Read more →]

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

The Folly of Stack Programming and Developing

April 7th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When you rely upon things from other people, you are sometimes greatly disappointed. This holds for programming computers. Are you a “full-stack developer?” Do you argue about what a full-stack developer is? Have you been asked, “Given this problem, what stack would you use?” Sigh. Since the pre-historic times of computer programming, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Programming · Risk · Systems

Systems Analysis or “How’s Your Analytical Skills?”

December 28th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Questioned if I noticed little patterns in the data, I asked back about little tools. Several decades ago, I interviewed for a job in some sort of computer center that processed some sort of data. The descriptions were intentionally vague because the person speaking to me felt that it was all too […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Communication · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Systems Analysis or “What’s the Problem Here?”

December 17th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Systems analysis is merely a few basic skills in what a person notices. From time to time I analyze systems. I analyze all types of systems, and most of those systems are usually not recognized as systems. I suppose I have a broad idea of what comprises a system. A fundamental skill […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · General Systems Thinking · Systems