Contracting Officer Podcast 2.0 Episodes
As former Federal Contracting Officers who have also walked in industry’s shoes, Kevin and Paul share their expertise and perspectives in support of the podcast’s mission: Make government contracting better, one contract at a time.
Never Miss An Episode
Skyway subscribers know the value of expert insight and support. Login or subscribe today!
451 – Acquisition Forms
Forms. Really? That does not sound very exciting. Fair enough – while “exciting” is not the word most people think of when discussing forms, this topic is relevant and important. Why? Because...
450 – Types of Solicitations
In the 3 Deciders episode (episode 118), Kevin and Paul explained how the Economic Decider has the funds that are used to buy products and services under government contracts, the Customer has the...
449 – What is Severability?
Contract Severability is one of those concepts that has one meaning in the commercial world, and a slightly different meaning in the GovCon world. In non-government contracts, a simple definition is...
448 – What is Pre-Acquisition? (part 2)
Episode 443 was Part 1 of Pre-Acquisition communication. In that one we introduced the concept of Pre-Acquisition communication, Kevin and Paul provided some context why it matters. To recap,...
447 – Professional Compensation Plans with Joe Luetke
The government buys lots of services…but not all service contracts work the same way. There are personal services, non-personal services, Service Contract services, advisory services, and so on. We...
446 – What are “Open and Frank” Discussions? (Part 2)
Communication between government and industry matters throughout the acquisition process. In last week’s episode, we dug into a common misconception that gets in the way of effective communication –...
445 – What are “Open and Frank” Discussions? (Part 1)
Communication between government and industry matters throughout the acquisition process. In this episode Kevin and Paul dig into another common misconception that gets in the way of effective...
444 – How Does Pricing Affect the Contract? (w/ Heather Teed)
If we’re going to buy something, we need to know how much it will cost. D’uh, right? The contract defines the terms and conditions of the purchase, while the price determines the value and/or cost...
443 – What is Pre-Acquisition? (part 1)
Kevin and Paul have covered a LOT of topics on this podcast. In each of the episodes, they map out where a particular topic fits within the Acquisition and/or Execution Time Zones®. (NOTE: For more...
442 – What are Foreign Military Sales?
The United States government buys a wide variety of things in a variety of ways. In this episode, we cover one of those unique ways: through Foreign Military Sales (FMS). Under FMS, the US...
441 – Why is this Inherently Governmental?
We talked in episode 440 about how the government awards contracts for lots of services – unless those services are “inherently governmental activities”. We outlined the definition of that in...
440 – Hiring from the Same Labor Pool
The US government decided a long time ago to contract out as many services as possible, except for the ones that are “inherently governmental services” (see episode 195 for those). However, the...
439 – Federal vs. State / Local Contracting (w/Troy Francis)
Is federal contracting really that different from state and local contracting? In this episode, Kevin welcomes Troy Francis to the podcast to help answer that question. Troy knows the nuances of...
438 – GovCon Conventions
Chess is one of my favorite games. It’s simple, yet maddeningly complex. Chess is a game in which it’s easy to get the basics: there are only 6 types of pieces. However, the game gets complicated...
437 – Finding Contract Awards w/Shelley
There are several places in the FAR that direct contracting officers to award products and services against existing contracts BEFORE establishing new ones. There is even a specific provision that...
436 – What is Acquisition Planning?
Wanting to award a contract and having a path to make award are two different things. The government needs to acquire goods and services. Even when the government customer clearly knows what they...