Welcome
I have been a computer and systems engineer with the U.S. government since 1980. One of my avocations is writing about technical subjects. Here is a list of my publications. (updated 26 July 2007)
Books
Roy O'Bryan and I have written It Sounded Good When We Started. It contains stories and lessons learned from working with people on projects over the years. We think project managers can benefit from our mistakes.
In addition, I have written The Software Project Manager's Handbook now out in it's second edition. It contains information I have learned over the years about managing software projects of all sorts and sizes. The IEEE Computer Society published this book.
These two books are available at the IEEE and John Wiley and Sons. Amazon and Barnes and Noble also sell them.
I have written two editions of a book on image processing and I compiled a book of material from my late father. These are the Sermons of Neal Phillips.
Fiction
Here is an attempt at short story fiction writing called Another Blank Page February 2007.
Book Reviews
Here is a review of Jerry Weinberg's The Aremac Project June 2007.
Travel Essays
No Visitors in the Library Oxford, England - January 2006
Full Airplanes November 2005
POSH Travel Still Exists March 2005
Summer Travel August 2004
Cutter IT E-Mail Advisors
Drilling Down Versus Picking Nits: A Management Technique September 2007
An Afternoon in a Hospital Waiting Room July 2007
Celebrations A Tribute to the Survivors of the Virginia Tech Massacre - May 2007
A Manager's Metric: The Employee Weigh-In March 2007
Just One, More, Little Change January 2007
I Thought They Knew What They Were Doing November 2006
No One Would Do That! or Why Engineers Should Attend Budget Meetings November 2006
Introductions September 2006
Maternity Leave, Surfing, and Long Walks July 2006
Key Moments in Projects March 2006
No Surprises January 2006
A Peculiar Project December 2005
Good Old Project Management October 2005
Summer Jigsaw Puzzles and Project Management August 2005
Returning to Some Fundamentals November 2003
Frankenstein at Work February 2003
Plan for Success, then Plan for the Blues November 2000
Process: Antiprocess July 2000
Don't Forget to Breathe May 2000
Working Out of the Comfort Zone March 2000
Let Someone Else Test It
Let Me Just Do It: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The Most Important Project in Anyone's Career
Some Thoughts on Requirements Management
Risk Management: We Need to Change the Name
On Second Thought
The Healthy Skeptic
A Quick Cure for Painful Document Writing
Negative Synergy
Let Us Pause to Reconsider (Again)
The Words We Use
Messages: Judging Them or using Them
Working During a Community Crisis
Extreme System Failures
Derived Requirements
It Matters What You Say, or It's Alive An Employee Awakens
The Free Bagel Measure of Project Health
Dedication Requires Good Management
Put your name below and turn it into a link (
)
