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May 19, 2020 By cs

Project management and COVID-19 recovery: Lessons from previous disasters

The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 has prompted an unprecedented response from all levels of government, across the country and around the world.   As part of this response, local, state, and federal agencies sprang into action to help protect citizens from this potentially catastrophic biological threat while continuing to deliver services in communities nationwide.

As the initial public health threat hopefully subsides in the days and weeks ahead, many federal projects and programs will be launched to support longer-term COVID-19 economic recovery.  These recovery efforts will affect people whose housing, utilities, and other life necessities are at risk, as well as entire industries whose existence has been disrupted by the COVID-19 threat.

While these efforts may be unparalleled in many ways, there are some lessons learned from previous disaster recovery efforts that can inform policy makers, federal project and program managers, and their executive sponsors in their work to help the nation recover from the effects of this extraordinary event.

The Project Management Institute’s 2020 Pulse of the Profession® research reveals that 11.4% of each dollar invested on projects is wasted due to poor performance — that’s $114 million for every $1 billion.  There is a great deal at stake to ensure that pandemic response projects and programs are delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/05/project-management-and-covid-19-recovery/165298/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized.  Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, coronavirus, COVID-19, disaster recovery, economic recovery, efficiency, industry partners, mission support, partnerships, performance, project management, readiness

May 18, 2020 By cs

Effectively communicating the acquisition impact

For far too long Contracting Officers (KOs) have been articulating in a rather underwhelming way the impact their acquisition efforts have on enhancing capabilities, mission success, and ultimately supporting the War­fighter.

The terms that KOs typically use to frame their support to the Warfighter involve detailing the dollars obligated and number or contract actions performed in support of the Warfighter. While this approach is used widely within the acquisition community to describe the efforts of contracting professionals, it does little to effectively illustrate the impact of contracting professionals or their teams’ contributions to the Warfighter. In order to effectively communicate/articulate their support with key stakeholders outside the acquisition community, contracting professionals need to change their words and approach and develop their message.

More specifically, they need to transform their message from a technical one to a dialogue that is relatable outside of the acquisition enterprise.

Operationalizing Contracting

An illustration of the need to change how the acquisition professional’s value is described is the concept of “operationalizing contracting,” which was introduced by Gen. Gustave Perna, Army Materiel Command Commanding General, in 2017.  In an online Army Contracting Command article, Perna shared his vision of operationalizing contracting by describing it as “… integrating and synchronizing contracting across the materiel enterprise in order to meet the Army’s priorities and the combatant commander’s priorities.” He adds, “It’s not about the number of actions and the dollars obligate …” but rather “… it’s about outcomes for the Soldier on the battlefield and for the Army.”

There is very little debate that a complex Base Life Support (BLS) or Logistics Civil Augmentation Program contract, valued at more than $1 billion, undoubtedly provides a significant capability to a combatant commander across all levels of warfare and warfighting functions. However, if contracting professionals continue to express their value to supported units in terms of dollars and actions, they will fail to illuminate the impact of less complex contracts that also greatly enhance a unit’s ability to train, fight, and win at the tactical and operational levels.

Training Environment

In deciding how to effectively communicate to their stakeholders, contracting professionals need to consider several things. One way to build a better framework for their communications to the non-acquisition community is to start with an understanding of the “why, what, and how” associated with the requirement being acquired for the supported unit. Frankly, contracting professionals are well versed in focusing adequate energies and efforts in understanding the what, as well as the how. But how much effort is dedicated to understanding why? Furthermore, are staffs and requirements developers prepared to provide the necessary information about why it is necessary to contract for a requirement or capability? Simply put, the stakeholders are singularly focused on the “what.” Having the information necessary to answer “why” is crucial to further contracting professionals’ communications. Equipped with that vital information, development can begin of an effective communications framework to utilize when interacting with the supported commanders and their staffs on requiring activities. Building an effective communications framework begins with fundamentals and requires an understanding of:

  • The levels of warfare (Field Manual [FM] 3-0, Operations).
  • The Phases of the Operation (FM 3-0).
  • The commander’s key tasks and intent.
  • Operational Contract Support (OCS) (Joint Publication 4-0, Joint Logistics).
  • The Warfighting functions (Army Doctrine Publication 3-0, Operations).

Doctrine is the language of our profession while the acquisition policies and regulations are a dialect. A focus on the use of doctrinal language should extend past the confines of Professional Military Education.

Practical Example

Let’s utilize the previously described contract action to help illustrate how to better effectively communicate contracting support in terms that are “operationalized.” Remember the BLS contract described earlier as valued at more than $1 billion? For illustrative purposes, let’s assume you are preparing a message for the Task Force (TF) Commander under a combatant commander. The TF staff described the BLS contract support as being necessary due to the Boots On Ground limitations established by the host nation (the why). Some other background information is necessary before we begin to build the communications framework.  Let’s assume that the audience for the discussion is the TF Commander and, for the purposes of this illustration, he is most interested in the impacts contracted support have in the strategic level of warfare.  Operation X is currently in Phase III, and one of the commander’s key tasks and intent for the current phase is to deny the enemy safe haven and freedom of movement throughout the Joint Operations Area (JOA).  As a contracting professional, you are primarily concerned with the BLS contract acquisition timeline. How do you communicate the significance within the OCS framework?

Based upon the process described above, a more effective method of describing your organization’s impact to the mission might look like this: Regional Contracting Center (RCC)-Operation X utilizes 15 acquisition professionals to provide administrative oversight of the BLS contract in country that provides mission critical contracted support to 10,000 Soldiers across six Camps/Bases. RCC-Operation X’s administrative oversight provides mission partners with secure and sustainable facilities and infrastructure that enhance their capability to plan and provide mission command across the JOA. RCC-Operation X’s support provides a platform to marshal and mobilize forces rapidly through the use of mission enhancing services such as maintenance, logistical resupply, and health services in order to deny the enemy safe haven and freedom of movement throughout the JOA. This contracted capability provides the commander with the ability to rapidly scale operations as necessary.

Value of Effective Communications

While changing the way contracting professionals express their value to the formation is one aspect of the issue, it is only one part. The other facet that requires some attention is the working relationship that contracting professionals have with requiring activities.  There is no denying that there is a continued reliance on contracted support by Army units on both the battlefield and home stations to meet their needs. It is critical that contracting professionals work as closely as possible with supported units from logistics planning to requirements development to help facilitate this reliance on contracted support. A concerted effort from all stakeholders is necessary to more effectively involve contracting professionals in the acquisition process. Increasing the involvement and touch points across staff functions coupled with an expectation of communication from contracting professionals that is grounded in doctrine will help set the conditions for success.

Increasing Opportunities

To develop this critical skill set, it is crucial to create opportunities, and the environment and situations that facilitate the contracting professionals’ use of a more effective framework for communicating their support of the Warfighter.  The cohesion, trust, and communication our maneuver commanders have with the contracting community can be helped significantly by increasing the contracting professionals’ involvement in Warfighter Exercises, Table Top Exercises, training rotations at combat training centers, and logistics planning. Relying on contracting professionals to develop the “language” only when deployed is not an effective training model.  We are, however, in luck, because the acquisition support that is provided to our mission partners at the Camps, Bases, Posts, and Home Stations provides us with an environment that is ripe with opportunities to train.

Conclusion

Finally, a simple example of changing the communications framework contracting professionals use is the pervasive use of the term “customer” when describing the units we support.  The use of the term conjures up images of “take a number and have a seat,” work hours posted on the door, and long lines at “customer service” sections.  This is not the image of a combat enabler that provides a diversity of enhancements, operational flexibility, and reduces vulnerabilities of the Warfighter across all warfighting functions.  More appropriate terms that should be used are, for example, requiring activity, mission partners, stakeholders or support unit.  Knowing when to use and when not to use certain terms can go a long way to better convey our value to the Warfighter as contracting professionals.

In closing, in order to fully articulate the impact contracting professionals have to the mission and Warfighter, it is critical that: 1) contracting professionals develop a relatable lexicon in describing their impact; 2) increase opportunities and touch points with supported units that facilitate practice in utilizing these skills for contracting professionals; and 3) adopt a simple change such as no longer using the term “customers” as the catalyst for change.


This article was authored by LTC Kevin P. Shilley, U.S. Army.  Shilley is Battalion Commander of the 902nd Contracting Battalion, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington State. Simultaneously, he is serving as the Chief of Contracting for Regional Contracting Center-Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraq, and is due to redeploy in March 2020. In 2008, he transitioned to the Army Acquisition Corps. His acquisition assignments include Contract Management Officer, Contracting Team Lead, Contracting Battalion Operations Officer, Program Integrator, Regional Contracting Center (Iraq), Contracting Battalion Commander. He is Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act certified Level III in Contracting, and Level I in Program Management. He earned a master’s degree in Procurement and Acquisitions Management from Webster University.  The author can be contacted at Kevin.P.Shilley.mil@mail.mil.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition support, acquisition workforce, communication, contracting officer, contracting officer's representatives, contracting officers, mission support, partnerships, procurement reform, stakeholders

May 7, 2020 By cs

Navy contract spending jumps 30% in April amid coronavirus pandemic

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year.

But for the Department of the Navy, April’s numbers rivaled those figures: Contract obligations this month are already up 30% compared to the same period a year ago, and almost double the figures from April 2018.

To be sure, the coronavirus pandemic was a big factor in the increase in dollars-on-contract. Like most other parts of the government, the Navy and Marine Corps are spending a lot to respond to the pandemic itself and to keep vulnerable parts of their supply chains afloat.

But that’s not the whole story, said James Geurts, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. The Navy Department’s ability to get cash out the door more quickly is also the result of reform efforts that have been underway for the last two-and-a-half years and emergency planning that predated the COVID crisis.

“I’m seeing some remarkable efficiencies,” he told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “I think a lot of that is getting rid of layers of bureaucracy that weren’t needed. Some of it is also creating better partnerships with industry so that we can leverage cost and pricing data we already have, and we don’t have to send out an RFP and get a proposal back just to confirm that data. And some of it is just a continued sense of urgency and mission focus.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/04/navy-contract-spending-jumps-30-in-april-amid-covid-pandemic/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized.  Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition workforce, coronavirus, COVID-19, efficiency, industry partners, Marine Corps, mission support, Navy, partnerships, procurement reform, readiness

April 10, 2019 By AMK

GAO: Revised analytic approach needed by DoD to support force structure decision-making

To adapt to growing threats, the Department of Defense (DoD) says it must urgently change.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO)  looked at DoD’s process for providing senior leaders with the information they need to adjust the size and capabilities of the U.S. military to meet top defense priorities.

Senior leaders are not getting the information they need to make these important decisions.

In GAO’s March 14, 2019 report, they recommend addressing the following challenges:

  • It is difficult to develop a common “starting point” for force structure analysis.
  • The military services’ analyses largely supported the status quo.
  • There was no way to compare options and identify trade-offs across DoD.

The GAO finds that DoD’s analytic approach has not provided senior leaders with the support they need to evaluate and determine the force structure necessary to implement the National Defense Strategy. DoD’s analytic approach — Support for Strategic Analysis (SSA) — is used by the services to evaluate their force structure needs and develop their budgets. However, GAO found that SSA has been hindered by three interrelated challenges:

  • Products are cumbersome and inflexible. Although DoD guidance states that SSA products are to be common starting points for analysis on plausible threats, including threats identified in strategic guidance, DoD has not kept the products complete and up to date in part because they were highly detailed and complex and therefore cumbersome to develop and analyze.
  • Analysis does not significantly deviate from services’ programmed force structures or test key assumptions. Although DoD’s guidance states that SSA should facilitate a broad range of analysis exploring innovative approaches to mitigate threats identified in the strategy, the services generally have not conducted this type of analysis because guidance has not specifically required the services to do so.
  • DoD lacks joint analytic capabilities to assess force structure. Although DoD guidance states that SSA is intended to facilitate the comparison and evaluation of competing force structure options and cross-service tradeoffs, the department has not conducted this type of analysis because it lacks a body or process to do so.

GAO’s report notes:

DoD efforts to revise its analytic approach are in the early stages and have not yet identified solutions to these challenges. Moreover, DoD has attempted reforms in the past without success. Without a functioning analytic process that addresses the above challenges, senior leaders do not have the analytic support they need to prioritize force structure investments that would best manage risk and address the threats outlined in the National Defense Strategy.

See the GAO’s full report and recommendations here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-385

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: analytics, DoD, GAO, mission support, National Defense Strategy

April 2, 2019 By AMK

Why federal IT projects fail (and how to ensure success)

In any business, it’s not uncommon to have several projects taking place at the same time, forcing organizations and their employees to play a delicate balancing act. For federal agencies and contractors, it is even more critical to appropriately juggle their projects due to the missions they are supporting.

These numerous tasks, large and small, are essential to the federal government’s efforts in aligning with and working towards their missions. Federal agencies prioritize specific initiatives, allocating resources and talent to ensure their projects are successful and their goals are met. Much blood, sweat, tears and taxpayer money is put into these projects, and yet, one in three IT projects is canceled before it’s completed.

That seems like a stunning figure. How can this be true? What goes wrong along the way for a third of every project started to be cut back?

As it turns out, projects are often derailed from the beginning. In fact, the most common problem is the lack of immediate action to get these projects back on track, allowing problems to grow until they become too large and too far gone for project managers and their teams to resolve.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2019/03/why-federal-it-projects-fail-and-how-ensure-success/155435/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition planning, acquisition strategy, contract administration, IT, mission support, OMB, performance based acquisition, project management, PWS

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