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Why procurement officials shouldn’t fear debriefings

The White House has a strong message for the government’s buying officials: Talk to the companies that bid on a contract about why they did or didn’t win the award.

The Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) recently released a “myth-buster” memo clearing up misconceptions about debriefing meetings, the post-award discussions often requested by unsuccessful vendors curious about why they weren’t selected.

Among common practices OFPP tried to bust: “If a company brings a lawyer, cut the discussion short.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2017/01/why-procurement-officials-shouldnt-fear-debriefings/134375

Read the OFPP’s Jan. 5, 2017 “myth busting” memo at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/procurement/memo/myth-busting_3_further_improving_industry_communications_with_effectiv….pdf

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The challenging search for good procurement practices

A year ago, headlines were all about IT procurement reform, with Congress threatening to impose new rules on government that promised to increase effectiveness and improve results.

This quickly gave way to more sage advice arguing that what we needed was not procurement reform, but instead, continual and incremental improvements in procurement processes and adoption of best procurement practices.

GWACToday, I see little evidence that the government procurement market is converging on the best IT procurement practices. Instead, agencies appear to be adopting diverse strategies focusing on finding expedient, protest-resistant procurement solutions rather than focusing on enhancing mission outcomes.

Lucky enough to have the right attributesMany of these practices are gaining market share, but may fall short of achieving long-term mission objectives and have unintended outcomes that ultimately may prove disadvantageous to both government and industry.

Keep reading this article by Bob Lohfeld at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2015/10/08/insights-lohfeld-procurement-practices.aspx

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Can government be agile?

Agile is having a moment. With a promise of faster and better outcomes for everything from start-ups to the labyrinthine federal government approach to services procurement, the agile way is very much in the spotlight.

But along with this sudden fame comes the inevitable oversimplifications and forced contrasts, such as the supposed clash of the methodologies that pits agile against formal project management.

U.S. Digital ServiceThis is an artificial debate. The truth is that these two approaches can and do co-exist successfully. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements; agile allows teams to deliver projects piece-by-piece and make rapid adjustments as needed. Agile is not done in place of managing a project. Instead, it is frequently introduced as a way to speed up phases of a project.

TechFAR Handbook TOC 08.2015With its promise of a faster path to the right results and more satisfied customers – especially on complex projects – it’s no wonder that agile is a cornerstone of U.S. CIO Tony Scott’s mission to vastly improve customer satisfaction with federal technology services. This Agenda has already yielded such practical tools as the Digital Services Playbook—actually released and made public by Scott’s predecessor Todd Park—whose 13 plays from proven private sector best practices include Play 4, “Build the service using agile and iterative processes.” There is also the TechFAR Handbook, a helpful guide to flexibilities in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that can make it easier for agencies to implement plays in the Playbook through acquisition.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/management/blog/2015/08/07/can-government-agile/31293553/

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4 tips for getting the most out of procurement

Public sector procurement is more complex than it was even five years ago.

Sourcing has gone global, exposing the supply chain to a greater variety of risks than what was previously imagined—conflict minerals, cybersecurity threats, international regulations and more—and the standards for spending transparency have risen tremendously, as evidenced by the adoption of the DATA Act last year.

DATA ActThe expectations for procurement have been set high. In order to meet these expectations, procurement organizations will have to break away from what they’ve always done and reconsider how they measure success. The technology, people and processes in place largely determine the success of such a transformation. Here are four actions that government agencies can take immediately to unlock the full potential of their purchasing activities:

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2015/06/4-tips-getting-most-out-procurement/114988 

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Pentagon ranks top suppliers to spark competition among contractors

The Defense Department’s acquisition chief on Friday (June 13, 2014) released a ranking of the top 30 supplier units within the contracting industry as part of a continuing effort to improve the government’s largest procurement operations by curbing costs and professionalizing the workforce.

Frank Kendall III, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, introduced the first rankings from a Navy Department pilot project called the Superior Supplier Incentive Program. Designed to help industry “recognize its better performers” based on past performance and evaluations by program managers, such a list is planned for all the services beginning to build incentives, Kendall told reporters. “The industry people who will respond the most will be the ones at the bottom,” he said.

Sean Stackley, assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition industry, said “industry best practices include recognizing the best suppliers, which gives them an incentive to sustain superior performance.” The selections were made through a process designed to be “fair and objective and understood by the public and Congress, as well as easy to manage,” Stackley said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2014/06/pentagon-ranks-top-suppliers-spark-competition-among-contractors/86473/

For the annual report on the performance of the Defense Acquisition System, click here.  

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