Memory, Thinking, and Intelligence, Essay Example

The Situation

I signed up to Project Manage a particular infrastructure contract for a major computer supplier who were commissioned by a Bank. I failed to complete adequate due diligence on the contract requirements. This was basically a “lift and shift” of computer mainframes from different locations to a central bank location.  The Bank had added an additional clause that each system would be mirror imaged into a disaster recovery site that had a 98% compliance factor to systems migrated to the DR site.  This clause in essence changed my understanding of the contract and made the timescales virtually impossible to achieve.

Critical Thinking Strategies

Dialogue Focusing Strategy –  It would have been better to probe and dig deeper into the contractual details. The concept of understanding the direction of the project by asking more critical questions; examination of the multiple perspectives instead of the one dimensional thought process I utilized.

Full Spectrum Questioning – The more obvious questioning of what, when, where and how.  Gathering of all the information to determine the full extent of the agenda and purpose of the contract.

By adopting critical thinking skills, I would have been able to re-negotiate a more realistic time horizon for the project or more realistic decline the project.  Instead, this was only able to be dealt with by Risk Assessment and the end result could not be achieved.  I left the project at the earliest contractual exit point after 3 months in.