Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Perspective Urgency

July 9th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is urgent. Is it? adjective: urgent (of a state or situation) requiring immediate action or attention. Immediate attention. Do it right now! That is a relative statement. Someone else tells me, “Do it before doing these other things on this list that someone has created. I deem this more important than […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Choose · People

Which Door Opens?

July 6th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we do things backwards and expect everyone else to know. Here in the year of the virus, I sit outside a nationally recognized chain of coffee shops (whose name begins with an “S”) viewing the Internet and occasionally writing blog posts….(is that a long-enough opening sentence?)… But anyways, in the year […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Humor · Observation · People

The Democratization of This or That Technology

June 29th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Someone please give me a magic wand so that I won’t have to talk to those ogres. I currently work in what some people call “data science” and others call “artificial intelligence and machine learning.” Each day I read something about the “democratization of data science” and the “democratization of artificial intelligence […]

[Read more →]

Tags: People · Technology · Tools

Did We Really Need those Conferences Anyway?

March 9th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The conferences are cancelled this year. Will we miss them? Really? I suppose that 2020 will be remembered as the year of the coronavirus. Right or wrong, and we may never know if we were right or wrong in all this, people stayed home. We hid from mass gatherings—I didn’t know that […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Conference · Economics · Meetings · People

Step 0, i.e., the Foundation

November 11th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Regardless of how earnest and sincere the persons, being misinformed at Step 0 dooms any endeavor. Step 0 is the beginning. Some call it the foundation upon which all things are built. It is important. In my experience, regardless of how earnest and sincere any person(s) may be, if they are misinformed […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Mistakes · People · Risk

Fool Proof…or should It Be?

September 23rd, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Makers of systems might consider an old, old list when considering the -ilities or non-functional requirements. “This system is fool proof!” said one person. The other person replied, “I know some pretty big fools.”—paraphrase from something written somewhere at sometime. Considering the “fool proof” system brought to my mind a few questions […]

[Read more →]

Tags: General Systems Thinking · People · Requirements · Systems

Organics versus Mechanics

September 9th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is as simple as one word instead of another that can change everything. Do we manage or cultivate? Do we transfer or transplant? Do we tell or till? We could go on. Is the workplace a machine or a garden? Are our colleagues living, breathing humans or interchangeable cogs? Persons […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · People · Word · Work

Organizing or Organi-mizing

July 25th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Organizing is pretty easy. Shuffle some squares and you have a company. Creating an organic system where persons can thrive is much more difficult. The results, however, are amazing. I made up the word “organi-mizing.” At least I think I did. I found some pages on Pinterest that had the word. So […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Management · People

We are Talking about This

June 17th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We are talking about this because this is what we are talking about now. The preacher—the person on TED talks, the motivational speaker, the person next to you at the bar— preaches on the topics that we talk about in the parking lot, the hall ways, the grocery store, etc. At work, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Conversation · Learning · Listening · Management · Notice · People

Malevolence and (In)Competence

May 16th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Yes, the technology is here to watch everyone all the time, but do those who have it also have the ability to use it? Each day I see yet another example of the reach of technology. Facial recognition seems to be the most recent target of the they-are-watching-us crowd. Little cameras are […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Government · People · Technology