IMPROVING THE FEDERAL AQUISITION WORKFORCE

The problem with today’s federal procurement workforce is that experienced hands are leaving, leadership is underperforming in finding ways to transfer expertise to the new generation and the younger workers lack the requisite initiative to find best practice experience and to follow it.

One of the main problems is communication with industry.  OPFF has issued best practice experiences in the form of myth busting memos which emphasize the need for communication.  The feds need to buy more like it’s done in the commercial world.  They need to talk more with industry to find out how it’s done and how commercial products and services can fill government needs.  Talking more with industry also helps the feds by encouraging private innovation and by learning how to take advantage of it.  But the myth busting best practice guide languishes in many agencies.  The word just does not get to the field. 

Communication isn’t the only problem.  Among the most serious is the emphasis on lowest price, technically acceptable procurement actions.  When the government overused detailed design specifications, performance specifications were born.  Detailed requirements lend themselves to pass or fail technical evaluation and award to the lowest price.  But we’re now in the performance specification era where best value tradeoffs should rule.  Performance specifications and lowest price technically acceptable selection are a bad mix.  Poor leadership at the top and inexperience at the bottom have created this problem.

There is such a thing as the wisdom of the ages in federal procurement.  We’ve learned that fixed prices for ill-defined statements of work are a bad idea.  We’ve also flirted with the notion that buying like the commercial world can be a good idea.  We’ve also learned that full and open debriefings prevent more protests than they encourage and that cooperation and communication with the contractor not only are legal requirements, they also help assure successful contractor performance.  There is a vast storehouse of valuable best practice information available in the memory of the retiring workforce on any number of subjects relevant to today’s procurement activities.  

We see a simple solution which will take some hard work.  First, OFPP needs to do more memo writing like the myth busters memos.  It needs to follow up on its best practices for contract administration guide and update and expand on it.  Senior acquisition executives who receive the OPFF memos need to do a better job of leadership in making sure the word gets to the field.  They also need to be held accountable for making sure the best practice experience is in fact practiced in the field.  Finally, the new generation needs to find the winners, understand their winning ways, and adopt the practices experience has taught will work.  In other words, they need to exercise better initiative in finding the wisdom of the ages in procurement. 

We propose that the retiring generation assist OFPP in writing down best practices for contract formation and administration.  Senior acquisition executives need to commit to making sure the word gets to the field.  And the new generation needs to exercise initiative in finding the best practice experience and in following it.  Start with communication.  The myth busting memos are the model.  Those best practices have been vetted thoroughly by the most experienced professionals in the business.  They represent the wisdom of the procurement ages.  The new generation would be well served by starting with OFPP’s advice on dealing with industry.

bill@spriggsconsultingservices.com