Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Most of us profess to like a good story, but do we? Stories are important. They inform others of our path to where we are today. We love stories. Or do we love the word “story?” If we love stories, we would tell them often. We would type the words to the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Similar to the signal-to-noise ratio is the knowledge-to-opinion ratio. Watch for it. sig·nal-to-noise ra·tio noun the ratio of the strength of an electrical or other signal carrying information to that of interference, generally expressed in decibels. The signal-to-noise ratio used to be important to most of us. While riding in a car, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips People differ in work styles. Failing to admit such is failure. Let’s discuss our difference and work. We turn in products on schedule, sometimes literally at the last hour. Well, what’s the problem? The products are on time. And many are fine with that. If you finish ahead of time, you show […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Could we simply speak English? Could we try to speak in a way that makes it difficult to misunderstand? It would be nice if we both simply spoke English and tossed in a few diagrams to illustrate our thoughts. Slang? I may not know your slang. You may not know mine. We […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, I want to talk with another person about something. Is that what I really want? I have heard a concern expressed in many ways, including: We haven’t talked about this We need to talk about this sometime I want to talk about this I want to tell you something These are […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I don’t like the metaphor of the software “pipeline,” never have. Here is one explanation why. I recently wrote of my distaste for the metaphor of the software stack. Now I express a similar distaste for the software pipeline. Perhaps this goes back to the Unix pipe—shown with the “|” vertical bar. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is a basic thing to do when working as a group to create and refine ideas. This procedure works with just about any task where a group of persons is working together to create and refine ideas. One example is gathering requirements and creating preliminary designs. Another is outlining or formulating […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The current situation brings with it the usual proclamations by those who, despite public appearances, appear to be illiterate. We need not join them. The current crisis brings with it, as most do, a new set of slang and expressions. Many of these are issued by public officials who, by all appearances, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Plans are significant things. We produce them with significant effort. Otherwise, we are merely chatting about our hopes, dreams, and wishes. Person A: We have a plan for that. Person B: Great. May I see it? Person A: What do you mean? Person B: Your plan. May I see it? May I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A few thoughts on an item that has been forgotten in the workplace and society in general, the Memorandum for the Record.   Question: Can you believe what just happened? We should tell somebody. Somebody needs to know this. What do we do?  Answer: Write a Memorandum for the Record or MFR.  Follow-up […]

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