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Is Fashion a User Need?
While writing a post on the virtues of reuse, I realized that there is a tradeoff between reuse and fashion. Both are user needs; one is pragmatic and rational; the other is emotional and social. (Note: The car in the photo is a 1957 Chrysler 300. My grandfather owned one of these. Grandma always felt…
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The Ephemeral and Enduring
Note: This post is based on a guest lecture I presented the systems engineering students at the University of Utah on April 17, 2023. Some skills that I acquired during my career as a systems engineer served me well for a few years and then became obsolete. Other skills have served me well my entire…
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Lessons Learned from Mentoring Modeling
The Wasatch chapter of INCOSE met with systems engineering students at the University of Utah on September 8, 2022. It was a pleasure to share some our knowledge with the students. Judging by the quality and quantity of their questions, the students also got a lot out of the event. Four of us gave presentations.…
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Working with the Worlds of the Workplace
Systems engineers encounter many different worlds within the workplace: product design, management, sales, testing, manufacturing, service and human resources. If we understand the structure and values of each of these worlds, we can work more effectively with the people that inhabit them. This post was inspired by ideas presented in the book The Dawn of…
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Schedules are Models
Schedules are models. We can use them to model various ways we might organize a project. We can then make a schedule that best meets our needs BEFORE we start executing the project. Two categories of models In this post I find it useful to make a distinction between two categories of models: scientific models…
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Doing and Not Doing
There is a natural cycle to all productive work: Preparation, Doing and Not Doing. A task is iterated through these three states until it comes to completion. All three states are essential for success, but we often skimp on Preparation and neglect Not Doing entirely. Preparation Preparation includes learning, training, research, investigation, observing others, periods…
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Parkinson’s Law for Schedules
Parkinson’s Law states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” To plan the development of a product, we create a schedule. This schedule is a model of how we hope to proceed with the project. We use it to determine what we need to do, the best order in…