Posts By Tracey Wright

Is It Time to Professionalize Contract Management?

It’s the problem that won’t seem to go away: for decades, government agencies, academics and industry associations have identified a lack of expertise and training among acquisition personnel as a key challenge for the acquisition workforce. Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, acknowledged the problem, adding a new goal toRead… Read more »

Procurement Planning – An Important Spoke in the Wheel

By Randy Gardner, Senior Program Analyst With the recent uncertainty over further sequestration and a possible second government shutdown, many agencies and components of the federal government have been asked to identify those procurement actions that are critical and have the potential to cause major operational dysfunction if delayed. While this drill is important, it’sRead… Read more »

May the Source Be With You!

By Ilandus Swinson, Procurement Lead In a business environment where the government is expected to do more with less, the strategic sourcing process has become a resourceful approach in helping agencies reduce spending and clearly define requirements while also improving mission delivery. Strategic sourcing can be defined as a standard and formal process that incorporatesRead… Read more »

Widening the Aperture of Acquisition & the Acquisition Team

By Mike Ipsaro PMP, CCE/A, Technical Director Today’s fiscally constrained environment is being felt in many places, including acquisition. The Federal Government spends billions to execute its missions through acquisitions. After talking with one of my colleagues about the impact on the acquisition discipline, she astutely said “though resources may be narrowing, the way youRead… Read more »

Cloud or Cloudy? Government’s Transition to Cloud Offerings

By Lyttleton Shurland, CPIC Analyst The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has required Federal agencies to adopt a “Cloud First” approach to evaluating options for new IT deployments. This was born out of the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management by Vivek Kundra, who was the US Chief Information OfficerRead… Read more »

Avoid Risk by Using Solicitation/Contract Templates

By Cynthia Zieman, CFCM Imagine this scenario. Your acquisition lead time is quickly slipping. Time is running short to develop your solicitation documents, which could jeopardize meeting the target project completion date. What do you do? It’s likely that you don’t start entirely from scratch on a completely blank page. Do you pull the lastRead… Read more »

Avoid Risk by Using Solicitation/Contract Templates

By Cynthia Zieman, CFCM Imagine this scenario. Your acquisition lead time is quickly slipping. Time is running short to develop your solicitation documents, which could jeopardize meeting the target project completion date. What do you do? It’s likely that you don’t start entirely from scratch on a completely blank page. Do you pull the lastRead… Read more »

Breathe! How a Holistic Approach Helped Us Survive the Government Shutdown

The latest in our Health and Wellness series of yoga classes for employees started last week and I began thinking how some of the fundamentals we’ve been learning in yoga can be applied to managing during an unexpected or challenging situation, such as the government shutdown. The implications of the shutdown have been far-reaching –Read… Read more »

Successfully Quarterbacking Government Contract Closeout Files

By Clarence Pittman, CFCM Imagine a college football game day – large crowds of fans, student colors, marching bands, and the cacophony of noise. Once the last touchdown is scored and the crowds leave, the crew that remains behind has the important job of ensuring things are brought to a close and all is inRead… Read more »

What Elements of BBP 2.0 are Important to IT Programs and Why?

By Tom Kuhn, PhD, Fellow As we move further into an unprecedented era of tighter budgets and post war downsizing, it makes sense to implement Better Buying Power 2.0, the directive published by Frank Kendall, Undersecretary for Acquisition at the Department of Defense (DoD), in April 2013. Bottom line – if you are a programRead… Read more »