It’s the time of year when many of us take stock of the last 12 months and vow to improve next year. We will be smarter, more organized, perhaps even try something new. The numerous Integrity Matters articles written by our on-the-ground experts in 2014 provide a leg up for the New Year. They contain …
Continue reading “Acquisition and Program Management Tools for 2015”
In this time of tight budgets and potential loss of global technological superiority, the need for innovation is greater than ever. As Frank Kendall, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics shared with an audience of defense industry leaders recently, “We have to focus more on innovation, and we have to get better capability …
Continue reading “3 Tools Worth Reading to Spur Innovative Federal IT Acquisition”
Since 2001, software developers have used the Agile methodology, employing short sprints and cross-team collaboration, to bring products to market faster with earlier customer input. Others have begun to apply the tenets of Agile beyond IT to the general field of acquisition. Why? To speed results, lower risk, and benefit from lessons learned throughout the …
Continue reading “AGILE ACQUISITION SUPPORT: REAL-WORLD CONSIDERATIONS”
No matter how products and services are being acquired, financial analysis can help in decision making to acquire the requirements in the best and most cost effective ways. Federal Government acquisition uses frameworks and processes that leverage several financial tools to maximize the value procured from the solution while decreasing the risk of wasted resources. …
Continue reading “Better Acquisition Decisions through Financial Analysis – Part 2”
Government spending has become a political football, and with budget cuts and sequestration, there is greater pressure to spend taxpayer dollars in the most cost effective way and to be able to prove that we are doing so. It seems like a daunting challenge, as more scrutiny has been placed on Federal programs that are …
Continue reading “Better Acquisition Decisions through Financial Analysis”
Does this sound familiar? Mission and business owners define their requirements, “throw them over the fence”, and then the contracting and contractor community conduct activities to obtain and deliver the contracted solutions. But what about rapid changes in technology, short development time frames, reduced budgets, or greater complexity? These risks in execution lead to schedule …
Continue reading “Use the “A” Team for Integrated Acquisition Planning”
Your team may have spent hours and hours considering the program management, risk management and quality assurance issues involved in letting a new government contract. But have you pulled the key information about how that contract will be managed into a single plan? A Contract Management Plan (CMP) is one of the primary tools the …
Continue reading “With A Great Contract Management Plan, The Sky is the Limit”
Congratulations! It’s your first day at your new job as a Program Manager (PM). The last few days have been a whirlwind. You got the call from your director that you had been selected to replace the PM for one of the smaller programs in the portfolio. The previous PM had been reassigned and you …
Continue reading “How an Integrated Master Schedule Can Avert Program Management Disaster”
In the current fiscal environment, there is an even stronger focus on being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. That is certainly commendable and definitely what is expected by John Q. Public. The recent trend to uphold that trust placed in the Government has been toward awarding contracts on a lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) …
Continue reading “Is Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) Always The Best Deal?”
This is sprinting season for any acquisition professional working on completing acquisition packages, negotiating offers and awarding the proposals. Contracting Officers (COs) should be proactive in doing all that needs to be done to ensure the requirements are awarded in a timely fashion. While each agency has its own internal policies and regulations, there are …
Continue reading “Ready, Set, Go… Cross the Acquisition Package Finish Line by Fiscal Year End”
