Working Up

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

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AI and Jobs

January 24th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips AI, as we have it today, is a software tool. Like all software tools, it should aid persons in their jobs, not replace persons. We have all these artificial intelligence programs everywhere. At least some persons claim such. What we have are software tools. The software can find some images that maybe […]

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Tags: Help · Jobs · Judgment · Systems

It’s Called “Source Code” for a Reason

January 21st, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Want to know what computer software is doing? Go to the source of knowledge regarding it. I run a bash script daily to put my Internet viewing log online. (See here.) This script runs through a series of folders, us old guys still call them directories as in the Unix days, copies […]

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Tags: Knowledge · Systems · Uncategorized

I Always Seem to Break the Machine

December 17th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips “I always seem to break the machine.” I hear students say this…frequently. Reframe: I am earnestly doing my job. I try harder than most other persons. I am not sleep-walking through the day. I push the performance of my tools. I want to work with these persons, the ones who always seem […]

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Tags: Reframe · Systems · Work

AI: Algorithm-Assisted System

November 8th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I have a failing in that I like to call things what they really are. Hence, I take on the recent AI financial boom. AI is everywhere (too bad we don’t seem to feel that real intelligent people are everywhere, but that is another topic). AI drives our cars. AI reads our […]

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Tags: Ethics · Fatigue · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Eye’n Fly’n and Buy’n

September 6th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A reminder of a basic from systems engineering. There are several baselines we use most of the time regardless of intent or realization. I once worked in an organization that (1) flew machines and (2) practiced systems engineering. One of the favorite phrases of persons there is the title of this post: […]

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Tags: Baseline · Design · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Systems

Please Draw Me a Picture of This

April 16th, 2018 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If we can’t provide a simple representation of a system, perhaps we have a mess and not a system. A: Can you draw me a picture of this? Something that shows how all the parts fit together? B: Uh, well, no. No one has ever asked for such. A: Well, I’m new […]

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Tags: Communication · Conversation · Systems · Technology · Visibility

I’m not Testing, Just Noticing

December 21st, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I fill the role of the “just notice-er.” Perhaps that should be an official title in systems development. I was preparing a demonstration of software we developed in house. Something wasn’t happening as I expected. I asked a couple of the programmers to look over my shoulder. “Look at this,” I […]

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Tags: Communication · Conversation · Notice · Systems · Testing

But This Worked Before!

December 18th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Nothing is so cruel as to learn that the system we built doesn’t do what we thought it would. We are good, smart, caring people. We work diligently to build good systems that serve others. We test. We really test—no kidding, no fooling around. We really test. Then one day, someone walks […]

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Tags: Breathe · Learning · Reframe · Systems · Testing · Thinking

Systems Engineering and Social Media

November 23rd, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The recent rash of misuse and abuse of social media reminds us of that old, boring practice called systems engineering and limiting systems to do only what they are supposed to do. Recent news reports point to all sorts of “misuse” and “abuse” of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These […]

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Tags: Engineering · General Systems Thinking · Requirements · Systems

Technical Budgets

September 21st, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A review of one of the fundamentals of systems engineering. We create and manage budgets of key technical performance measures. System engineers work with technical budgets. Examples: size weight power attenuation memory use RAM memory use disk time to complete an operation We are building a smartphone. We are told to keep […]

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Tags: Engineering · Systems