Most often, when we talk about open source in government, it’s talked about in one of two ways: either it’s the pitfalls of the federal IT procurement model that can’t seem to comprehend a world in which open-source is an option, much less potentially a superior choice (“acquisition as a roadblock“), or it’s reiterating theRead… Read more »
“Responsibility” was the operative word at the Association for Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) Spring Membership and Training Conference. The 300 PTAC counselors, staff and managers gathered to attend the conference attended numerous presentations emphasizing responsibility– responsibility to their clients, to the federal procurement process, and to the public’s dollar. Although a variety of topicsRead… Read more »
Shortly after I started inspecting construction almost thirty years ago, I started realizing most contractors have the same response to similar situations. When I was younger and asked a contractor to do something, the typical response was something like, “Honey, I’ve been doing this for thirty years, and ….” Then they would go on toRead… Read more »
You want to help your organization save energy, time and money. But companies from which you buy power and energy efficiency services don’t always understand your pain points or what’s important to you. If you’re ready to affect this dynamic, our company invites you to contribute to our research report. It’s easy and doesn’t takeRead… Read more »
BY now, we’ve all heard about the agile development process and how, today, an iterative approach to developing/implementing IT programs is in vogue. We’ve also heard all the many complaints about how the Federal acquisition process is too slow to keep up with rapidly changing technology, evolving requirements, etc. We also are aware that anyRead… Read more »
Will the debate over the Nation’s economy in this election year reduce the focus of our Congressional friends on our acquisition community? For the past few years their gaze has been pretty unrelenting and it’s arguable whether or not intense Congressional scrutiny is either a good or bad thing. Personally, I think their focus willRead… Read more »
Search out Federal Bids You must put forth the time to identify the projects or orders, I encourage using a service along the lines of BidSpeed to automate wherever possible. Go after projects that are expiring and emerging for renewal. It is valid that many RFQ’s these days are already highly determined by one company,Read… Read more »
By SCOTT AMEY Is the federal suspension and debarment system broken? The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) attempted to answer that question yesterday. That hearing follows a hearing on suspension and debarment held last month by a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. Both hearings featured almost the same witnesses, but hopefullyRead… Read more »
Here’s an all-too-common occurrence: The government issues a Request for Proposals (RFP); companies respond with their proposals; the contracting officer (CO) requests a technical analysis of the proposals to help guide the decision… and the technical report that comes back, in plain terms, stinks. Sterling Whitehead, a contracting enthusiast who writes his contracting blog AllRead… Read more »
When contracting officers get a new proposal, they often ask engineers to write a technical analysis. This tells the contracting officer if the proposal is technically solid. Unfortunately, many engineers aren’t trained to do this. Rock Your Tech Report aims to help fix this by giving engineers a cheat sheet of sorts with tips, bestRead… Read more »