Skyway Wire
Proposal Color Teams – Part 1
The color team concept is familiar to many who have submitted proposals to the federal government. To those with a lot of experience, the color team process is often a source of frustration. This is...
Case Study: Prototyping, Salient Characteristics and Requirements Definition
This article is a case study that explores the issue of prototyping and pre-determination in the definition of requirements. The government’s challenge in soliciting a requirement is in meeting the...
Profit: How Much is Too Much?
In the commercial marketplace the question of profit usually is not a subject for discussion when buying a product. As consumers we accept an inherent principle that market place competition drives...
The 6-month Rule
I read a great book a few months ago called “Lean in” by Sheryl Sandburg, the COO of Facebook. The principle of the book was to provide a successful woman’s perspective on executive business. I...
Pay Attention to OCIs or Pay the Cost
If your company is active in the federal market performing on existing contracts and competing for new contracts, then you should pay attention to Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI). An...
Lowest Price Doesn’t Always Get the Award
"You realize we're sitting on 45,000 pounds of fuel, one nuclear warhead and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder? Makes you feel good doesn't it?" - Rockhound...
Using Sample Tasks in Source Selection
Recently I assisted one of the other Skyway consultants with a company that was in a source selection where the Government was using sample tasks as an evaluation factor in an IDIQ RFP for...
The Proposal Pressure Cooker
Why are proposals so demanding on an organization? It is not the expense, per se, or the opportunity cost. It is what the proposal process demands of the participants. Proposals are abnormal...
Market Research (Pricing Perspective)
People new to federal contracting get introduced to market research as a rather generic description of the government’s efforts to determine a fair and reasonable price range for a required item. ...
Price Reasonable Determinations
A big part of making an award decision by the contracting officer is determining price reasonableness. Depending on the complexity of the procurement this can entail a very simple analysis or hours...
“Sorry Letters,” or Notices to Unsuccessful Offerors
Over the holidays I was thinking about “Sorry Letters,” or their official term, Notifications to Unsuccessful Offerors. I had previously authored a series of articles on Exchanges with Industry,...
Staffing Levels
Performance-based contracts for services focus on the performance outcomes and the contractor’s ability to meet or exceed standards; however, regardless of unique methods that may be used, it is...
Agile Government Contracting – Part 5 of a Series
Department, Command and Agency leaders must also champion the generally accepted wisdom that lean principles, the intellectual source of agile practices, can be applied to Government acquisitions of...
Closing the Deal
Negotiations in government contracting can be an interesting subject. In my years as a CO, almost every contracting officer I knew had a different approach to conducting negotiations. I grew up in...
Agile Government Contracting – Part 4 of a Series
Command and Agency leaders must understand the changing reality where they find themselves operating. Technology-driven process improvement means the cost of exploration and experimentation has been...
Doing What’s Right, For Both Sides of the Contract
In one of my first official contract actions in Afghanistan in 2007, I made a common but avoidable mistake, and the result serves as a good lesson for both industry and government contracting...