Neighborly
by Dwayne Phillips I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable. I encourage managers and other to speak with each of...
View ArticleSoftware Engineers and Software Engineering
by Dwayne Phillips Being a computer programmer does not make me a software engineer. Deep sigh before I begin. This is yet another post borne of frustration in talking with recruiters and hiring...
View ArticleIt is (not) Just a Table
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the arrangement of furniture in an office is far more important than a first glance indicates. Once upon a time, I worked in an organization that moved into some office...
View ArticleThe Price is Right (until it was wronged)
by Dwayne Phillips Often it is better to let people watch a game show at work while they eat lunch. Here is a sad but true story. In the early 1990s I worked in a big computing laboratory. At one end...
View ArticleNeighborly
by Dwayne Phillips I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable. I encourage managers and other to speak with each of...
View ArticleMy Customer and Me, and Our Difficult Problems
by Dwayne Phillips When confronted with a difficult situation with a difficult customer, it is often better to step back and ask a few fundamental questions. The setting: I am a developer. I am...
View ArticleOur Bad Customer
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we are stuck with a bad customer. We still choose how we live and work. Alright, our customer is bad. They gripe all the time, show no appreciation for our efforts. They...
View ArticleThere ARE Stupid Questions
by Dwayne Phillips Forget the old cliche about stupid questions. There ARE stupid questions, and hiring managers have asked me a bunch of them. I’ve been interviewed for jobs a dozen times There are...
View ArticleDevOps: Born of Managers Managing Poorly
by Dwayne Phillips Yet another new occupation comes from yet another bad practice. For the past several years surveying the job market, I kept finding ads for a position called DevOps. Some reading and...
View ArticleTo Write is to be Misunderstood
by Dwayne Phillips Sorry, the title of this post is true. Several years ago, I managed a West Coast project from the East Coast. Every day I would send several faxes to the other coast to ask and...
View ArticleDon’t Joke at Work—It May Become a Policy
by Dwayne Phillips Take care with jokes at work. A “manager” may hear the joke, take it seriously, and make it a policy. This isn’t a Dilbert cartoon; it is a true story that happened to me some 20...
View ArticleTop Workplace!
by Dwayne Phillips The heartlessness of the common job advertisement. If you issue such ads, please consider your audience—the unemployed. Join us! …reads the job listing title. The listing continues...
View ArticleThe Proposal-Writing Toolkit
by Dwayne Phillips These are my most recent and most favored proposal-writing tools. In the past few years I have spent some of my time writing proposals for companies seeking government contracts....
View ArticleTwo Workspaces per Person
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I work in groups of persons; sometimes I work alone. Why don’t I have a workspace for each of these types of work? This is a silly request; I realize that. This request,...
View ArticleWhen Documentation is More Valuable than Working Software
by Dwayne Phillips Working software is more valuable than documentation—except when it isn’t. And we have Dwayne’s Declaration. Part of the Agile Manifesto states: We…value working software over...
View ArticleCopyright 0.1—We Don’t Own the Words, but Others Act Like We Do
by Dwayne Phillips Words written in the employ of a company belong to the company. Still, others will ask for them. Beware as you could be an accomplice to theft. I am writing a few posts about...
View ArticleCopyright 0.2—Protecting Your Writing Samples
by Dwayne Phillips Companies will often request a writing sample from potential writer hires. Without adequate notice, the companies have a license to steal. I am writing a few posts about copyright. I...
View ArticleSustainable Endeavors and the ISTJ
by Dwayne Phillips If your organization is to begin an endeavor that will take time and patience to bear fruit, employ the right type of person. Some endeavors require years to come to fruition. A...
View ArticleThe Gift of Expectations
by Dwayne Phillips One of the best gifts to give another is that they expect you to be consistent. This holds for managers on the job as well as grandparents at home. ‘Tis the season to give. Consider...
View ArticleFire the Cashiers or Allow Them to Add Value
by Dwayne Phillips About to be replaced by a machine? We must add value. In some cases, employers must allow us to add value. Amazon recently made news with a grocery store that has no cashiers. Wow....
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