Working Up

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

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Find It Later, Pay More

February 23rd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An old saying remains true: the later we find a mistake, the more expensive it is to fix. The later we find a mistake, the more expensive it is to fix. That is an old saying. It is still true. The saying is most-often attributed to Barry Boehm as he described it […]

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Tags: Change · Error · Expectations · General Systems Thinking · Mistakes · Systems

It All Comes Down to the Bathroom

January 5th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This current AI boom all comes down to the cost of providing bathrooms for people. Or so it seems. I think we are over thinking the idea of what we think about these chattering bots. Folks, the chatbot is just software running on a computer. Yes, some of that software makes me […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · General Systems Thinking · Money · People · Systems

Cleverly Deceptive

December 15th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips AI has eaten the world. It is the latest and greatest thing…or is it? I hang around America’s Federal government. There are many new programs in our Federal government to push and pull and take advantage of AI. AI will do wonders. Isn’t it wonderfully wonderful? Sigh. Perhaps I am just too […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Engineering · Language · Mathematics · Systems

Fundamentals and Fads

December 11th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It must be difficult running a college and deciding what departments to create and what degrees to offer. It seems only yesterday that colleges started offering degrees in Data Science. Data Science was the sexiest job of the century or so said an article in Harvard Business Review. I guess they missed […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Data Science · Learning · Systems · Teaching

Let’s Build a Datacenter (With a Little Sense)

October 30th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Everyone is building a big(ger) datacenter. Fine. Let’s use some sense while we are at it. Everyone is building a big(ger) datacenter. If you are going to build one, you must build it bigger than the one across the fence. Louisiana building a $10 Billion datacenter? Mississippi must build a $15 Billion […]

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Tags: Computing · Datacenter · Expertise · Money · Resources · Systems · Technology

The AI Crisis

September 11th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Borrowing from The Software Crisis of the 1990s, I declare The AI Crisis. A recent report from MIT claims that 95% of AI projects attempted by well-meaning folks fail. Gosh. That is a pretty high percentage. I remember the software crisis of the late 1980s and all through the 1990s. Reports like […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Design · History · Requirements · Software · Systems · Technology

AI,Jobs, and Poor Decisions

July 17th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Replace people with AI? Cut human jobs? Deciders at companies are deciding these things. It is unfortunate, but deciders at companies have a history of choosing poorly. Replace people and their jobs with AI. Think of the benefits. Save money. Better the bottom line. And remove some of those pesky people whose […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Change · Choose · Decide · General Systems Thinking · Jobs · Management · People · Systems

Gap Analysis: Beware

February 6th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Analyzing the gap between what we have and what we need is a good practice. Beware, however, that it doesn’t stop people from thinking and focus them on the same old thing. “Gap analysis is a systematic method used to identify the differences between an organization’s current state and its desired future […]

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Tags: Analysis · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Research · Resources · Systems · Thinking

One or Both Hands in My Pockets

January 2nd, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are times when a good thing to do is put one or both hands in my pockets before doing something else. In the late 1970s (yes, I am that old), a college professor was working with us know-nothing students in an electrical engineering lab. The experiment of the week involved a […]

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Tags: Adults · Choose · Education · Engineering · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Passing the System Test

November 14th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Did the system we are building pass the test? Wrong question. Let’s consider the purpose of testing. We have been testing the system we are building. The first question is almost always, “Did the system pass the test?” Wrong question. What these anxious folks want to know is, “Will the system do […]

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Tags: General Systems Thinking · Information · Learning · Questions · Systems · Testing