This is part 3 of a four-part interview series with Section 809 Panel’s Chair, Dave Drabkin who talks with Integrity about the urgent and important need to improve Defense (and Federal) Acquisition. To read part 1 and/or part 2, please click here for part 1 and here for part 2. Dave, when you presented the …
Continue reading “No Need to Wait (Practical Ways to Improve Acquisition Fast)”
With a seemingly broader array and quicker pace of threats, risks, and opportunities set against a backdrop of resource scarcity, maximizing value through optimal delivery of secure, citizen and customer-centric capabilities in line with strategy and priorities are more important than ever. Further, as we move through the Information age, the rate of change in the …
Continue reading “Try these tools to help you hurdle change in Federal IT Acquisition”
Have you ever wondered why you cannot seem to get the right team together in order to complete your major project? Does it seem that you are going in one direction and the other teaming partner, whether it’s the Contracting Officer or the Program Manager, seems to be going in a different direction or has …
Continue reading “Create Synergy to Bridge the Gap Between Contract and Program Managers”
Being able to efficiently and effectively diagnose the health of an organization’s portfolio of contracts takes time and persistence. Earned Value Management (EVM), a project management technique for measuring project performance and progress, makes it possible. However, those in the federal sector, including EVM experts, need to do more to communicate its value for increased …
Continue reading “EVM – Communicating its value to the “big A” acquisition community”
The original version of this blog was posted Aug. 5, 2014, written by Patricia Miller. Now, four years later, one of Integrity’s program managers, Dan Altobelli, revisits the ever-relevant topic. Read on for some industry standards from Patricia, and some updated must-dos from Dan. Even though it’s the dog days of summer in the “real world,” it’s …
Continue reading “Blog Revisit: Crossing the Acquisition Package Finish Line”
“Quality” may be one of the more over-used and least-thought-about words in our business vernacular. We’ve gone through cycles where we used different terms to characterize our attempts to “do” quality better. Remember Total Quality Management? How about the focus on ISO 9000? And more recently, “Six Sigma,” “Lean,” and “Agile” have emerged as concepts …
Continue reading “What Is Quality and How Is It Achieved In a Service Environment? – Part One”
If you want to make your contract management more efficient and see greater returns on your investment of time and effort, standardization could be the solution you’re looking for. Contract management systems and technologies, standardized contract language, templates, best practices, and lessons learned can yield positive, measurable results in effectively and efficiently crafting, administering and …
Continue reading “Seven Steps to Implement Standardization in Contract Management”
Can you think of a time when you said to yourself, “there’s got to be a better way to do this?” I know I can. We’re always looking for ways to make our business practices and our lives more efficient. Standardization provides an answer. It can help increase productivity and efficiency by defining expectations, formalizing …
Continue reading “How Standardization Can Improve Contract Management”
Facing an aging workforce, the question of how to train the next generation of acquisition professionals is a challenge that federal leaders and industry managers have yet to solve. The need for training is great, but budgets and time are often limited. Senior government procurement executives and practitioners say agencies have cut training dollars even …
Continue reading “Acquisition Workforce Training – Rethink Your Approach”
Employing best practices in Task Order Solicitation Management processes can help Government respond to constant challenges throughout the acquisition life cycle, particularly the acquisition planning phase. The primary reason for using a coordinated effort to apply best practices among Government Program Managers, Contracting Officers, program officials, and industry stakeholders is to increase the probability of …
Continue reading “Successful Task Order Management – Start Early!”
