by Dwayne Phillips This is one of the fundamental questions that persons working projects need to answer. We know what we are attempting, but we don’t know the actual progress and how that compares to the expected progress. There are several fundamental questions that should be asked and answered by people working on projects. Among […]
How’sit Goin’?
July 14th, 2022 · No Comments
Tags: Communication · Management · Questions · Work
Computing and the TPS Report
July 11th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Though we hate to admit it, the goal of us who work in computing is to produce a TPS report. The “TPS Report” is the butt of all office jokes. It is meaningless paperwork that serves no purpose. For a full explanation, see the Wikipedia page on it. Those of us who […]
Tags: Cloud Computing · Communication · Computing · Jobs · Work
The Work Diary
June 30th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Information is power. It can be good as well. I keep a steno spiral notebook on my workspace. I jot the date for today and everything I do today. I have done this since sometime in 1986. That is … a bunch of years. I have all the notebooks, so if you […]
Tags: History · Notebook · Record · Work · Writing
A Place to Belong (after being isolated)
June 2nd, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Americans are coming out of isolation from our reaction to the virus. One result is a growing trend to form unions. There is a growing trend in America to form unions for workers in coffee shops, restaurants, warehouses, etc. The obvious explanation is that these places have become rich and have not […]
Tags: Commitment · Expectations · Expertise · Observation · Reaction · Remote Work · Virus · Work
The Standard Configuration
May 23rd, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Start at the beginning and build from there. That sure is boring. That is the standard configuration. If, however, resources are scarce and the desire to accomplish new work is high, it is a good place to start. I recently restarted a new job. That is a long story for another day. […]
Tags: Adapting · Baseline · Culture · Learning · Management · Process · Systems · Work
Free for More Meaningful Work
May 2nd, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Automation and artificial intelligence promise to take away the bane of some work and make us free for more meaningful work. Do we want that? Automation frees us from that old work that is just the same old same old. We will have time on our hands and be free for more […]
Tags: Artificial Intelligence · People · Respect · Technology · Tools · Vocabulary · Work
How Many People Can You Waste?
April 28th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We have lots of work to do. We have people here to do the work. How many of these people can we waste? I suppose we are still in “the great resignation.” Come back to the office building, now! (please) (pretty please) We have lots of work to do. We have some […]
Tags: Management · People · Please · Remote Work · Work
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. […]
Tags: Childhood · Learning · Solutions · Time · Tools · Work
(too) Big Data
March 28th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Big data? What we usually do is automate work on data that is too big to work manually. I used to work on a project where the project leader would tell people, “We work big data.” I was frequently asked (later after the project leader left the room), “What is big data?” […]
Tags: Cloud Computing · Computing · Data Science · Work
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 […]