Agency Needs

Efficiently articulating agency needs is the cornerstone of successful acquisitions. Despite its seeming simplicity, this skill often perplexes even the most seasoned planners, requirement generators, and engineers. The ability to describe requirements in clear,...

Sources Sought

I often get asked whether it is a good idea to respond to Sources Sought announcements. My response is always a surprised “Yes, of course!” But perhaps the question is being asked because of a lack of understanding of what the Sources Sought represents for both...

Surge Clause

The Department of Defense is facing a situation where industrial capacity is limiting DOD’s ability to support both the needs of US military services and those of our allies who use the same equipment. The Government has a clause at its disposal as one tool to...

Losing Money

Recently two of our clients came to Skyway and asked for help with contracts where the price of the service was less than the cost. In one case, the contract price was underbid by the previous contracts manager to win the contract. In the other case, inflationary...

The Importance of How

When making a purchase, there are five basic elements that the buyer needs to make a purchase. In GovCon, there can be hundreds of tasks, items and documents that are required to complete the purchase. Just the same, all of them fit somewhere within these five basic...