Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

First, Let’s Do Something Useful

April 18th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When introducing something new, it helps to do something useful at the beginning and then delve into more details and more powerful capabilities later. I am interested in robotics, software, and my grandchildren. The intersection of these centers on my grandchildren and finding things for them to do when they visit me. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Childhood · Learning · Solutions · Time · Tools · Work

Discovery as an Unintended Result

April 14th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Doing something that goes beyond what is required often leads to discovery, and discovery may be a wonderful unintended result. Many years ago (in the last century), I was involved in an upgrade to an existing system. There were new requirements that required new capabilities. Some of the computing hardware was to […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Alternatives · Design · Learning · People · Requirements · Solutions

Fake Jobs

March 24th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Caution to the unemployed: beware of “just do this test” before we interview you. There are plenty of fake jobs out there that use one con or another to obtain free work. This recent article is about fake jobs. Con artists on the Internet are tricking people into believing they have been […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Jobs · Learning · Scam · Work

Is the Light Bulb On or Off?

March 21st, 2022 · No Comments

By Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what it is that computers can and cannot do. Computers are taking over the world. Well, maybe not. Let’s recall what a computer can do. A computer can tell if a light bulb is on or off. That’s about it folks. Nothing more. Everything else is […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Cloud Computing · Computing · General Systems Thinking · Learning · Software · Teaching · Technology

A Meat Grinder (time for a reframe)

March 17th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips That job is a “meat grinder.” It has chewed up several people. Stay away. Or do we simply need to reframe the situation? While writing this, I have spent much of the past week(s) looking at the help wanted ads and talking to several companies about their job openings. Several of the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adapting · Choose · Jobs · Learning · Reframe · Stories

We Don’t Need an XX on the Team

November 29th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We don’t need an expert in this or that to build better systems. We need a desire to learn and a desire to please. We don’t need a User Experience (UX) person on the team. We don’t need a Customer Experience (CX) expert on the team. We don’t need an XX (fill-in-the-blank […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Customer · Experiment · Expertise · Learning · Resources · Systems · Work

The Clipboard and the Pencil…and the Hurricane

November 1st, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Unfortunate events provide yet another great reason to use a clipboard and a pencil. My records indicate that this is the fourth blog post I have written about the clipboard and the pencil. The gist is that these old, simple tools are still quite valuable. Hence, we might reconsider a few other […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adapting · Emergency · Internet · Learning · Notebook · Simple · Technology · Tools

Fat Finger the Database (misadventures in data entry)

October 11th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Data entry, one of the lower-paid professions, is prone to errors, and some can be fatal. During the aftermath of the recent Hurricane Ida, a person close to me needed an essential service. By “essential” I mean if the service did not arrive, someone would die. I repeatedly called the service provider. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Competence · Customer · Error · General Systems Thinking · Learning · Mistakes · People · Testing

No-Cost Learning

October 4th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I find it unfortunate, but no-cost learning doesn’t exist. I guess this goes back to the concept of if it is worth something, it is worth something. No-cost learning? Boy, I sure do want that! Free online courses have a price tag of $0. They do, however, require time, energy, and other […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Choose · Learning · Resources · Teaching

Question Asking

June 21st, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The skill we should be teaching and learning and using more than any other today is question asking. We live in a world where all the questions have answers. We just have to find the answers. We have the facts, the data, the everything online in front of us. It is there. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Data Science · Experiment · Learning · Questions