by Dwayne Phillips If you are on the critical path of a project, you often behave in ways that don’t seem to make sense. The critical path of a project means a lot of things to different people. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the concept. One way to think of the critical path is […]
On the Critical Path
June 11th, 2015 · No Comments
Tags: Management · Process
Don’t Try so Hard
January 26th, 2015 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I try hard at everything. Sometimes I try hard too much. <start advice> Slow down. Back away. Breathe. Drink a cup of coffee. Relax. Take a nap. Find your own little zen thing that helps you to not try so hard. <end advice>
Tags: Breathe · Choose · Coffee · Health · Problems · Process · Thinking · Time
The Zero-th Step of Any Process
December 8th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Before doing anything else—think. Yes, this is old advice, but it still works. Process, process, process. The world uses Agile processes now. (At least those people whose job it is to tell everyone else what their organization does tells the world that they are Agile. I tend to doubt that they actually […]
Tags: Choose · General Systems Thinking · Learning · Management · Process
The Purpose
February 10th, 2014 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips People often choose a development method without any reason other than, “that is what everyone is doing now.” I urge a bit more thought. More thought on day one brings more time and energy the rest of the way. Agile development is all the rage today. I know because I am unemployed […]
Tags: Culture · Management · Problems · Process
They Made Us Do That in College
September 2nd, 2013 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There are practices that time has proven to be worthwhile. Someone in school drilled them into us. We vowed to avoid them as soon as school was out, but life eventually catches us. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen this on the job. We have a […]
Tags: Education · Excuses · Logic · People · Process · Risk
Don’t Let Agile Slow You Down
August 12th, 2013 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It seems that everyone is using an Agile process these days. There really isn’t anything new in Agile. And, in some cases, Agile can slow the delivery of software to users. What? Agile be slow? Yes, Agile processes can slow the delivery of software to users. Twenty years ago, I worked in […]
Tags: People · Process · Programming
Problem and Process: Four Cases
July 29th, 2013 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There is the thing we are attempting and the way we are attempting it. Using this perspective, there are four cases to consider. Wrong Thing – Wrong Way: Here we chose the wrong problem to solve and the wrong process to solve it. Aargh. We will work very hard with grievous vexation […]
Tags: Management · Problems · Process
Contemplative Writing
March 1st, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings. In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government […]
Tags: Management · Meetings · Process · Thinking · Time · Writing
If It’s Different…
September 20th, 2011 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Technical projects have plenty of opportunities to misunderstand what someone else is doing. Help yourself. If something is different, give it a different name. This is a post about a part of configuration management. But don’t stop reading yet. This makes sense and is not painful. Things change in technical projects. Software […]
Tags: Communication · Management · Process · Work
The Free-Form Data Entry Template
September 15th, 2011 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips How to cross the barrier of the blank sheet of paper. I love a blank sheet of paper. I know a lot of people who don’t. I was in a meeting once where people were given blank sheets of paper and literally revolted. They wanted some type of template to focus their […]