Preface

Some have called U.S. government acquisition the most complex business arena in the world, and that is not an unwarranted characterization. Thousands of laws and executive orders and innumerable pages of regulations, policy letters, and procedural guidance directly influence the federal acquisition process. And—as anyone connected with federal acquisition knows—changes are nearly constant.

No particular aspect of federal acquisition is more complex and burdened by rules than the source selection process. The laws and regulations that govern the process of selecting a contractor to provide goods and services to the federal government are there primarily to promote social and economic goals, to foster fairness and visibility, and to guard against the inappropriate expenditure of taxpayer dollars. The rules themselves, however, often make it difficult to emulate the kind of efficient and expedient acquisition that often takes place in the private sector.

To function effectively within the parameters of the federal source selection process, acquisition professionals must know the rules. Just as important, they must know how and when to apply those rules in a way that achieves a positive outcome.

The key to a successful source selection is—and always has been—the application of prudent business judgment by knowledgeable and competent professionals who have the ability to function effectively and efficiently within the established constraints of law and regulation.

About This Book

Source Selection Step by Step is more than a listing of the steps in the process. It aims to give the reader insight by examining the evolution of the process and by identifying the issues that must be addressed at each step in the process. In this way, those charged with carrying out the process for the federal government can make better business decisions.

The most daunting challenge in writing this book was to make it meaningful for the neophyte, the “old hand,” and everyone in between. For the sake of readability and to promote understanding, the book strives to address a relatively complex subject with maximum clarity, a dose of common sense, and minimum jargon.

Some of the government terms in the text, such as bundling or nondevelopmental item, may be unfamiliar to the reader. Rather than interfere with the readability of the text by using asterisks and footnotes, we have chosen to identify these and other government-specific terms in a definitions appendix.

To add clarity and to furnish food for thought, the book quotes portions of Comptroller General protest opinions and portions of U.S. Court of Federal Claims opinions. The full text of these opinions generally involves a number of issues, including some that are not germane to the specific issue being addressed. Accordingly, with very few exceptions, we have chosen not to include the full opinions.

In many chapters we have included exhibits showing examples and outlines of government and other forms and formats. These should be considered examples only and not recommendations. If you are a government employee, your agency’s own forms and formats may be just as good or better. If they are not, you may want to suggest some changes.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into discrete parts to make it easier for the acquisition professional to access information readily at the workplace.

Part I provides background information to help the reader fully understand the origins of contemporary source selection and the current source selection environment. It explains the two best value source selection methods: lowest-price technically acceptable (LPTA) and tradeoff.

Part II addresses the actions that must take place, and the decisions that must be made, before soliciting proposals from competing contractors. As adequate preparation is key to success in source selection, this part contains a substantial amount of information.

Part III addresses the process of soliciting proposals from competing contractors and preparing for the evaluation of those proposals.

Part IV fully describes the evaluation process, including merit/technical evaluation, past performance evaluation, and price/cost evaluation. It also explains the rules on obtaining any needed clarifications from competing contractors when award is to be made without holding discussions.

Part V explains the process of establishing the competitive range, the dynamic nature of the competitive range, holding communications with competing contractors before establishing the competitive range, and holding meaningful discussions with those in the competitive range. It also addresses the exchanges with contractors that are prohibited by law and regulation.

Part VI addresses proposal revisions, the reevaluation of proposals, and the procedures for making and documenting the source selection decision.

Part VII includes information on the notices to contractors that must be made before or after award, the conduct and sensitivity of debriefings, and the adverse impact of protests filed by disappointed offerors.

Part VIII addresses ways in which the source selection process can be streamlined, including awarding task order contracts and awarding task orders under those contracts.

Part IX describes some of the alternatives to conventional source selection that are permitted under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. These include the advisory multistep procedure, selection of contractors for architect-engineer services, best value selections for simplified acquisitions, source selection for commercial items and services, the combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items, and broad agency announcements.

Part X is the last, but by no means the least, of the parts. It addresses ethical considerations in source selection, including the protection of source selection information and post-government employment restrictions for source selection officials.

In addition to these ten parts, the book contains four appendices:

Appendix I provides real-life examples of how various military and civilian agencies score or rate proposals.

Appendix II is an example of one agency’s request for proposal (RFP) instructions to competing contractors on how to prepare proposals. It also shows how the agency explained to these competing contractors the proposal evaluation factors and subfactors and their relative importance. This appendix also demonstrates the use of sample tasks in awarding a task order contract.

Appendix III presents definitions of key terms used in the source selection process.

Appendix IV lists a number of additional source selection resources available to acquisition team members.

I hope you will find this to be a complete and useful how-to source selection book for every member of the acquisition team. Good luck to you and your team in your source selections.

—Chuck Solloway

January 2011