by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, all that is needed is to explain the other people. This may be the most difficult task in the world. Some people just don’t understand some other people. Why not? Because those are other people who are somewhere else. The two groups of people need someone who lives with one group […]
Explaining
November 28th, 2016 · No Comments
Tags: Clarity · Communication · Differences · Group · Ideas
When Documentation is More Valuable than Working Software
November 24th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Working software is more valuable than documentation—except when it isn’t. And we have Dwayne’s Declaration. Part of the Agile Manifesto states: We…value working software over comprehensive documentation Some of us are old enough to have known this years before the manifesto was manifest. Of course we wanted working software, except when we […]
Tags: Agility · Analysis · Authentic · Communication · Engineering · Management · Thinking · Work
Two Workspaces per Person
November 21st, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I work in groups of persons; sometimes I work alone. Why don’t I have a workspace for each of these types of work? This is a silly request; I realize that. This request, however, reflects reality and it would certainly improve productivity. I want two work spaces for myself. One is […]
Tags: Communication · Design · Work
Knowledge Management in the 1980s
November 7th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I recount my first knowledge management effort in the early 1980s. Premise: knowledge cost resources, so save it. I was a newly graduated engineer in 1980. The US government sent me to the end of the earth to maintain electronic equipment. We had a lot of that stuff, and it failed fairly […]
Tags: Change · Communication · Knowledge · Management
Top Workplace!
October 27th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The heartlessness of the common job advertisement. If you issue such ads, please consider your audience—the unemployed. Join us! …reads the job listing title. The listing continues with… As we create wonderful wonderfulness in a wonderful workplace! GREAT! When do you want me to arrive? When do I receive my first paycheck? […]
Tags: Communication · Ideas · Work
What was My Question? What is Yours?
October 10th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I am not a reporter asking a political candidate a question. I actually expect the other person to hear and answer the question I ask. What is wrong with me? I am currently taking a series on online classes. I ask questions in these classes. I am paying for these classes. I […]
Tags: Communication · Questions
Vin Scully, Neighbor
September 29th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I won’t hear my old neighbor’s voice anymore. Vin Scully retires. It was 40-something years ago. I was a kid playing in the back yard in southern California. I played to the music of Vin Scully describing Dodger baseball games. I never saw our neighbor—Mr. Garcia. He had erected some sort of […]
Tags: Communication
They Want You to Fail
September 22nd, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes people give you a task they know you will fail. That is because they want you to fail. Sometimes we are all dysfunctional. In government and business and everything else, sometimes, some persons give tasks to other persons while wanting them to fail. The giver of the impossible task puts the […]
Tags: Communication · Customer · Failure · Fear
A Numbers Game
September 19th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is simple. Have more people working with you, and success is much more likely to come your way. This one cannot be overstated. Linus Torvalds is famous for stating it, but many others have also stated it many times over many years. Anything that increases the number of people working a […]
Tags: Communication · Culture · Freelance · Group
Something for Nothing, Nothing for Something
August 22nd, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A new deal where we are offered something for nothing indicates that the provider has been delivering nothing for something. This isn’t just a rant at McDonald’s or Starbucks. It holds for any situation where we expend some resource from some product or service. Someone is “improving” their offering at the same […]
Tags: Change · Communication · Customer · Expectations