Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Another fundamental question in systems engineering. Like the rest of the questions, ask with caution. Ever ask the titular question at work? Ever ask it out loud and expect an answer? Perhaps you are a systems engineer. Perhaps your workplace needs a systems engineer. The question seeks to find the reason behind […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we have to stop, go back to basics, and learn what we are trying to do before we try to do it. Stupid, right? How in the world could I run off and start working before knowing what it is I am supposed to do? Trust. Someone I trusted told me […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The follies and pitfalls of a trade study. One of the more wasteful things governments, persons who work for governments, do is commission a trade study. Go forth, study something, and report back to us. Time passes. Persons run about asking questions and reading readings. The money flows. Keyboards clickety-clack, spots appear […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Agile development is not an excuse for knowing what you did, why you did it, and how you did it. You’re doing agile development. You hold a meeting to start a sprint (different methods use different names for this). You sprint! You meet again at the end of the sprint. What did […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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? […]

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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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