Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Get It Done (or not): Government vs Industry

January 13th, 2011 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In my industry job, I see people making phone calls to obtain answers to questions right now. I never say that in 28 years of government. Here are some thoughts on the practice. I worked in government for 28 years. I have since worked in private industry for two years. A current […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Culture · Government · Management · Meetings

Rural Broadband?

December 29th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The Federal government is spending billions of dollars on rural broadband. I haven’t seen any results in my rural area of interest. Something is about to happen, but we won’t know if it is practical or affordable until after it happens. I am spending two weeks in Louisiana during the holidays. I […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Broadband · Excuses · Expectations · Geography · Government · Yot Dow

Government and the Fear of Efficiency

December 20th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In government, prestige is proportional to the number of people working for you and the size of your budget. Efficiency is doing the same or more work with fewer people and less budget. Hence, government managers stay away from efficiency. Here is a little-known fact about being a manager in a government […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · Management

Associate Director of Policy

December 2nd, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I was watching Wheel of Fortune recently. It has been years since I saw that program. The contestants had their ten seconds to describe their lives including what they did for a living. One contestant was an Associate Director of Policy That is all they said – no more information. I surmised […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government

Outsourcing? Surviving as an American Programmer

November 15th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I noticed a recent story on outsourcing. It seems the state of Ohio required work performed on state contracts to be performed  in Ohio by residents of Ohio. Imagine that! Work funded by the taxpayers of Ohio should be done by other taxpayers in Ohio. That seems reasonable to me. It doesn’t seem […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · Outsourcing

RA

October 21st, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips summary I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. To be more specific, I live in Reston, Virginia – a planned community. This is a good place to live, have a family, find good jobs, good medical care, good entertainment, and so on. Just Google for “Reston 50 best places” […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Culture · Family · Geography · Government · Grand Canyon

NASA – Your Tax Dollars at Waste

September 28th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips And look, the same day I introduce the Yot Dow tag we have two stories that fit the tag. Both are from NASA (one of the biggest wasters of tax dollars in America). Here is one where NASA is using really old tech to control the space station. Yes it works, but […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · Yot Dow

Deciding Well vs. Documenting Well

September 23rd, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is a difference between deciding well and documenting a decision process well. The human condition means that we are mistaken a good portion of the time. Processes and documents can help, but they don’t erase that. I once worked in a government organization that prided itself on its excellent decisions. They […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Coffee · Excuses · Government · Lifecycle · Management · Meetings

Free Computers for the Government

September 13th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A scheme for the government to use the idle computer time of taxpayers. I think the scheme will work, but I wish it never happens. An idea struck me this morning for a way to save billions of dollars of taxpayers money (without eliminating half of the Federal government). Here is the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · Technology

One Reason for Government Dysfunction

August 12th, 2010 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Most government agencies are dysfunctional. There are simple reasons. One reason is that the path to promotion lies in spending money, not bringing value per cost. Try to understand how people “get ahead” working inside a government agency. To make more money, you are promoted to a higher grade. I worked in […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Culture · Employment · Government · Management