"Once I was handling the implementation of a new AI tool for a few of our departments. There was a number of other software that we needed to integrate with the AI tool. I was coordinating between our IT team and the vendor's team. One of the major milestones for this project was an event that our company was sponsoring. Around two weeks before the event, the vendor brought up that one of the integrations wasn't ready from our end. This integration was crucial to the outcome of the entire project. I found out that the person in charge, Jack, from our end was away for the week and would not be back until a few days before the event. This was time the project could not afford to lose because we would need a few days for end-to-end testing after the integration happens. I sought the advice of Jack's superior but he could not make a decision because he wasn't familiar with the security requirements.
So, I immediately escalated to one of our executive sponsors, the chief technology officer. I met with him, Jack's superior, and the vendor's project lead. I explained the consequences of missing this integration and its impact on our timeline. After assessing security protocols, Jack's superior worked with me and the vendor's project lead to start the integration from scratch. It took two days to get the project back on track. After that, we ran successful end-to-end testing and everything was smooth-sailing from there on out."
