Department Of Defense Procurement Training Handbook

The objective of this thesis is to assess the transition from traditional service contracting to performance-based service contracting at Department of Defense Field Contracting Activities. There has been an increase in spending on services over the past decade that has forced the Federal Government to review its policy on service contracting. In 1991, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy established policy for the acquisition of services using performance-based contracting. Interviews of Government contracting personnel and review of professional literature highlight barriers to performance-based service contracting. These barriers are: management of cultural change, education and training of Government and contractor personnel, adoption of best commercial practices, writing of performance-based statements of work, and the tasks involved in contract administration. This thesis makes recommendations for overcoming these barriers and provides guidance for successful implementation of performance-based service contracting within the Department of Defense.

The author of the well-received, A Guide to Federal Contracting, Dan Lindner provides in one volume, a succinct yet thorough treatment of Defense contracting requirements and regulations.

The Best Guide to Past Performance Evaluation in Government Contracting Just Got Better! The Past Performance Handbook has long been the resource contracting professionals have turned to for guidance on evaluating contractor performance and making award decisions in competitive acquisitions based on the evaluation results. Now this essential resource has been completely updated and revised to bring readers the most up-to-date information they need to conduct past performance evaluations. Past Performance Handbook: Applying Commercial Practices to Federal Procurement, Second Edition, not only includes a detailed explanation of the process of past performance evaluation, but also presents new approaches to standardizing assessment areas and rating scales, streamlining the source selection process, and ensuring that awards are made to the most qualified offerors. This thoroughly revised second edition offers: • Additional focus on the collaboration between the government and contractors in providing past performance information • Enhanced definitions of numerical scoring, adjectival ratings, color coding schema, and risk assessments — all consistent with the current guidelines issued by the Department of Defense and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) • Updated citations from the Federal Acquisition Regulation, OFPP, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) • Abridged GAO decisions that provide details for citations included in the text. Contracting officers and contractors working with the government will find value in every chapter of this updated edition.

This Handbook is a guide for the management of joint acquisition programs for current and future joint program personnel. As a complement to the more general Introduction to Defense Acquisition Management, Sixth Edition (Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Press, November 2003), this Handbook incorporates the perspectives of current and former joint Program Managers (PMs), including those who were members of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)-sponsored Joint Program Working Group (JPWG), which met at DAU in November 2003.