Working Up

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

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Really Bad and Broken

December 2nd, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If something is really bad, it is probably broken, not just really bad. Remedies are available. I once knew a person at work who hated vegetables. He knew, however, that he should eat some now and then because, as everyone will tell you, vegetables “are good for you.” So, one day he […]

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Tags: Error · Expectations · Failure · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Deep Fake Prevention #2

November 7th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Technology enables us to fake photos and videos. We can make anyone appear to say and do anything. Preventing such is quite simple. A few months back, I wrote about preventing harm from deep fake videos. That advice was to live in such a way that I could say, “You know me. […]

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Tags: Excuses · Expectations · Fun

Looking Like I am Working

September 12th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Appearances are often deceiving. As managers, we know this, but… A long, long time ago, I was sitting in a chair against the wall in a meeting. The important persons were huddled around the meeting table discussing what important persons discuss around meeting tables. To this day, I have no idea what […]

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Tags: Appearances · Employment · Expectations · Management · Meetings

The Built-In Excuses of the Hands-Off Manager

March 28th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Don’t like micro managers? Who does? Beware, however, the built-in excuses of the hands-off manager. “I give you a task. I expect it to be done.”—the charge of the hands-off manager. Who wouldn’t want to work for the person above? Freedom to use my own judgement and do what I think is […]

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Tags: Communication · Expectations · Management

Pleasant and Productive (or Profitable)

December 3rd, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Simple desires for the workplace. Years ago, a wise old man once told me, “The workplace should be pleasant and profitable.” He worked in a commercial business. No profits, no business, no jobs. Profits were necessary. Also necessary, in his experience, was that the workplace be pleasant. If it wasn’t pleasant, people […]

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Tags: Communication · Expectations · Government · People · Work

But We’re Tough (not)

May 10th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The claim of greater “better-ness” and ensuing failure seem to associate frequently. There is an old story of programmer who coded for six hours. Then, instead of going home, the programmer coded two more hours and made enough mistakes in those two hours that it took the rest of the week to […]

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Tags: Adults · Expectations · Fatigue · Humility

Write the User Manual First

September 4th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I review an old, and seemingly forgotten, technique for building systems in which we fully describe what a system will be and do. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away… Maybe not that long ago, but still…there was a technique for building systems wherein we wrote the user manual […]

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Tags: Communication · Design · Expectations · Requirements

The Folly of the Birth Certificate

August 24th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Basing decisions on a person’s age is a bad practice and always has been. Individual persons are  just that—individual persons. Groups have tendencies. Oh the horror of that statement, but it has some truth behind it. One of the greater follies of this post (post(post)) modern era is that of the “digital […]

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Tags: Culture · Differences · Expectations · Generation Y

The Commissioned Trade Study

April 17th, 2017 · No Comments

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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Tags: Analysis · Communication · Customer · Expectations

The Present and the Future

March 16th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here we are in the present. We can decide how we create the future. Things are the way they are because they got that way. Let’s try that again…The present is a natural result of all past circumstances. There are people, capabilities, technology, budget, outside forces, and a host of other things […]

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Tags: Choose · Design · Excuses · Expectations