About

My  formal education is a BA Biology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. MBA/Software Engineering, University of St. Thomas,  a Masters in Theological Studies, University of Dallas and most recently a MA in Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and Seminary.  I  live in Holly, Michigan about an hour north of Detroit . Currently, I’m an Information Technology Adjunct Professor, Trainer and Consultant  living in Holly, Michigan.

I have been a systems analyst, systems developer, systems development manager, chief information officer and IT best practice consultant over a 30 year IT career. Previously, I was an adjunct professor at Catholic University of America in DC while I consulted for the government in IT process improvement.  I currently teach  public IT certification classes and reference W. Edward Deming’s quality management practices as a basis for continual improvement. IT has become very much like managing a manufacturing and retail business, so IT used the manufacturing industries best practices to base its best practices on. Both IT and customer oriented manufacturing are both engineering, process and service based disciplines.

Deming’s management practices are very compatible with Aristotelian/Thomistic philosophy and ultimately Catholic social teaching on subsidiarity, solidarity, human dignity, development as a key ingredient of peace and continual improvement of the worker and the company. I believe Deming’s methods are very compatible with the Thomistic concept of participation of members in the common good of the community and society and individual receipt of the common good by the members of the community, business, society, etc. Deming’s methods are targeted at techniques that involve all levels of the organization in the common good of the company empowering employees in the process and treating the nature of the human person as basicly good and generous by nature, with the caveat that all human persons are also falling short of that ideal and need constant improvement (Aristototle calls them virtues which need practice to be improved).  Deming’s methods organize the company so all members/employees have the opportunity, accountability and clear responsibiities to improve the quality of their work for the customer both internal to the organization and  external customers that by definition purchase or potentially purchase, experience and use the companies products and services.

One response to “About

  1. mike magnuson

    hi John. I’ve been trying to track you down. send me an email if you get this.

    Thanks,

    Mike Magnuson

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