This series of FAR summaries is meant to take a meaningful portion of the Federal Acquisition Regulations to ensure an easy-to-understand approach to maintain that readers comprehend the process of doing business with the government and that the government exercises a fair and reasonable approach to doing business with the general public.
FAR 7.105 Contents Of Written Acquisition Plans
The FAR lays out exactly what your Contracting Officer has to do from start to finish and I was expected to complete 10-15 per year. I made the conscious choice to complete 7-10 iron-clad nearly error free agreements pertaining to post-award quality assessments. There’s a lot of work that occurs to award a federal contract correctly and I never liked orange jumpsuits, mugshots or being the focus of CNBC’s “American Greed” and The Washington Post. Crane’s Chicago Business, maybe but personal publicity is never my goal.
Background & Objectives
Why do you want it? How are you going to use it? How much is it? How does it work? How long is the project? What are the trade-offs? What are the involved risks? Can you use information from past buys?
All these questions need be answered by the Program Manager and the Contracting Officer before the solicitation even hits the street.
Plan Of Action
How many companies can meet the need? Is there a GI order of selection? Can the buy be set-aside? Can the buy be bundled? How will market research be conducted? How is the buy competed throughout the contract life-cycle? Is subcontracting involved? What type of contract will be used? What is the pre-award timeframe? Will their be options? Does IT come into play? What’s the budget look like? Is there money to burn? How will the need be worded? How will an emergency or priority effect delivery? How is performance gauged? Who does what? How is the project monitored? Can the vendor’s accounting software handle the project? Does any testing need to occur? How are delivery, acceptance, returns and warranty issued? Who owns product data and how much is it worth? Is the opportunity present for standardizing future buys? Will the government furnish property? Will the government furnish information? Is this a green buy? Is the buy classified? What federal acts or programs can further aid the project?
These questions help move through the pre-solicitation phase where the solicitation is drafted.
Then your CO just follows the yellow brick road.
Sounds simple and fast, right? That’s because I made it that way for you. If you can help your CO then you have a leg up on the competition.
If you think I can help then email nicholas.s.robertson@outlook.com for your introductory email and free consultation.
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