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August 27, 2018 By AMK

Can training in critical analytic thinking improve job performance?

For the government, making sure analysts do their jobs well is especially important. Agencies want to confirm they don’t miss crucial clues within data or make assumptions that hinder critical analytic thinking.
Click on image above to download report.

Several agencies have developed training programs in critical analytic thinking. But do these training programs work?

Under government sponsorship, MITRE researchers have conducted a first-of-its-kind study on a test that shows promise in evaluating the effectiveness of critical analytic thinking training. The findings indicate that critical analytic thinking skills are a predictor of job performance for positions involving analytical skills. In addition, the findings suggest that although critical analytic thinking skills are closely aligned with general intelligence, they’re not one and the same.

A team of MITRE experts in behavioral sciences originally created the test to help a government sponsor assess its training courses for developing critical analytic thinking skills. MITRE has written a report on its findings recently published in Personnel Assessment and Decisions, a peer-reviewed human resources journal.

Read more here: https://www.mitre.org/publications/project-stories/can-training-in-critical-analytic-thinking-improve-job-performance

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: analytics, critical thinking, market analysis, MITRE, technical analysis

January 26, 2015 By AMK

Acquisition 101: When a bargain isn’t a bargain

When my wife and I purchased our first vacuum cleaner, we selected a cheap model. It met all the specs of what we needed, did a minimally acceptable job and lasted little more than a year before it died. Not learning the lesson that buying the first vacuum should have taught us, we immediately bought another cheap vacuum to replace the first one, and it died an early death about 18 months later. We finally did learn our lesson with the third vacuum and paid slightly more for a better vacuum that has lasted six years (and counting).

Much like our predicament with the rotating vacuums, federal contracting professionals are facing increasing pressure to purchase goods and services as cheaply as possible using a method commonly referred to as “lowest price/technically acceptable” (LPTA)—even if it means minimal acceptability.  This push is laudable in theory, but the reality is often higher prices and a smaller pool of quality contractors, while robbing contracting officers of any discretion to choose a solution or product that is more cost-effective in the long term.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/01/acquisition-101-when-bargain-isnt-bargain/102672/

About the authors: Eric Crusius, a partner with Fed Nexus Law, focuses on government contracts, cybersecurity, employment law and complex litigation. Mitchell Bashur, an associate at Fed Nexus Law, also contributed to this column.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, best value, bid protest, CICA, GAO, lowest cost technically acceptable, lowest price, LPTA, price analysis, technical analysis, trade off, value

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