Working Up

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

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Notes on “Hungry Authors”

October 31st, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Thoughts on writing and publishing a non-fiction book. This book strongly recommends having a plan for the business and a plan for the book’s content. I recently finished “Hungry Authors” by Liz Morrow and Ariel Curry, Rowan and Littlefield, 2024. I like the book. It focuses on knowing why you are writing […]

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Tags: Communication · Concepts · Design · Notebook · Planning · Writing

Adventures in Medicare and Other Systems Thinking Principles

October 21st, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It is only healthcare and security in old age. Not very important, huh? In the recent past, I joined Medicare (yes, I am that old). Let’s see, just go to a government website, fill in the blanks, and viola’. Well, being a technically savvy person, I did that, or tried that. All […]

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Tags: Design · Error · General Systems Thinking · Government · Management · People · Systems

How Simple Can You Be?

September 19th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is a question we should constantly ask. Try the simplest thing to be, to do, to have. Several years ago, I posed a question to participants at a conference session I was facilitating. The design problem was about storing information from a business. I wanted a design of a system that […]

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Tags: Choose · Design · Learning · Problems · Simple · Solutions

A Thousand Assistants

September 16th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is a tried and true method of gathering requirements and specifying systems. Imagine you had a thousand assistants. There are various methods of gathering requirements and specifying systems. A basic one is to imagine a thousands assistants awaiting your request. If you had a thousand assistants, what would you have them […]

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Tags: Analysis · Design · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Simple · Systems

Let the Marketplace Decide

July 22nd, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s stop hyperventilating about this and that AI thing. The marketplace will decide and with more wisdom than myself. I just read yet another article about yet another artificial super-duper large language model. How can a model of something be larger than the something? Isn’t a model a smaller representation of something? […]

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Tags: Choose · Decide · Design · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Pretty Printing

June 24th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is worth the effort to make the output “look good.” Sometimes this pretty printing is a waste and only aggravates those involved. This past week at work I spent hours and hours pretty printing. We had “done the work” and were trying to make a printout of the work for […]

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Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Communication · Design · Expectations · Please · Work

Hand Jamming

June 17th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When building systems, reduce the amount of intricate typing required by users. Sometimes we forget this and require too much hand jamming. I ran across the phrase “hand jamming” recently at work. I hadn’t heard that in years. I was happy to hear that some people still knew it and knew what […]

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Tags: Design · Error · Mistakes · Simple · Tools · User · Writing

The Fireman Arsonist

April 1st, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We reward the fireman, the person who extinguishes a fire. Did the fireman, however, start the fire? I used to see this often. I worked in a place where engineers would plan projects and deliver systems per their plans. The trouble was: the engineers were terrible planners. They were good system designers […]

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Tags: Design · Engineering · Planning · Record · Systems · Work

No More and No Less

July 20th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When we build systems, build them to do and have no more and no less than we intend. A few pseudo definitions: The users says, “I want a system that does this and that is and like this and that.” The builders say among themselves, “We can do those things and a […]

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Tags: Accountability · Design · Engineering · Requirements · Systems

Wrong People, Wrong Forum

April 10th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In order to accomplish a desired goal, first gather the right people in the right forum. Otherwise, grievous vexation will result. I have something to accomplish. How will I accomplish it? Perhaps I need others to assist. Who? How? What forum? It is easy to have too many people in the room. […]

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Tags: Decide · Design · People · Questions · Thinking