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 blackjack, there is a strategy known as doubling down, in which players double their bet to get one more card in addition to their two card hand. Doubling down increases players’ chances of winning, just like risk management increases the chances of success during a contract’s lifecycle. Risk is an inevitable part of any …
Continue reading “The Double Down Strategy of Contract Management Risk”
You’ve won the contract! You’ve hired the team, but they can’t start work at the same time due to delays with the suitability process. You must execute the requirements of the contract with only a portion of your staff, while providing an orientation to the work and some on-the-job training. You start with a couple …
Continue reading “Rudder Check – Engage and Educate New Team Members to Stay On Course”
After the excitement of a newly awarded contract, comes the implementation of the winning proposal. Part of that is building the team to execute the plan and satisfy the contract requirements. But what if the whole team isn’t available on Day One, or the team is new to the sector? A common risk to staffing …
In this time of tight budgets and mandates to do more or the same with less, the need for innovation through greater communication and cooperation is greater than ever. The intelligent use of Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) that foster an organizational climate of cross-functional collaboration can drive innovation throughout your processes. This is accomplished by …
Continue reading “How Integrated Product Teams Can Improve Performance and Save Money”
It’s a commonly-used process, and yet so few manage to execute it effectively on a consistent basis. Capital Planning Investment Control (CPIC), if performed as intended, provides a strategy for capital planning that enables organizations to demonstrate and maximize value from scarce public resources. With the current funding environment, CPIC is ever-more important as a …
A new trend in acquisition – applying the modular method of “Agile” software development using daily meetings and lessons learned – is more productive than acquisition support done the “old way” because it utilizes necessary resources when and where they are required. Agile methodology applied to acquisition support is an increasingly preferred technique among Government …
Continue reading “Applying Agile Methodologies to Acquisition Support – The Benefits (Part II)”
Reverse auctions, a relatively new contracting method used by the government to procure a variety of good and services where the price is the main factor, has caused much debate and provoked heavy criticism among contracting professionals in the last few years. Some believe that reverse auctions are an excellent method to streamline the procurement …
Continue reading “Can Reverse Auctions Move Your Contracting Process Forward?”
