Federal Acquisition Process: Identifying Need to Procurement - Essay Sample

Introduction

Acquisition by the federal government starts with the identification of a specific need affecting the government. A Contracting Officer appointed by the Federal government, prepares and oversees the procurement of the proposal. This activity is divided into several sections beginning with the formulation of the idea on how the acquisition will be made. Consequently, a problem statement is developed. This will ensure that every activity is based on the subject matter.

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The process will set off with the development of a proposal. This proposal is extracted from the Request for Proposal, which exists in the statement of work. A plan will indicate to the contractor's ability to handle the task at hand, since in the proposal, they are required to produce their expected approach to the project and how they have worked with past activities with the same complexity and magnitude. Plans that delve into the experience and emphasize the contractor's ability to work on the task have proven vital as they usually save the committee on time.

When the proposal is accepted, the contractor then sets on the first step of the Federal acquisition process. He will start with the planning; this stage is subject to several factors and circumstances. For instance, the acquisition of equipment will be dependent on the urgency, level of accuracy required, and the available time. In the event where the government wishes to acquire weapons at a specific time, they will base the need on how fast they are required, the agility, and the quantity or quality accordingly. The acquisition is carefully selected. In such, they should not lead to any political debate. Considering the level of security required and the danger being posed will also factor in when making the acquisition. Furthermore, the equipment will be required to show high levels of durability so as to enhance long time use.

When coming up with the contract, they will also consider the risk posed by the acquisition. These risks can be developed by several individuals. First, the management will give their view on how high the risk is, management in this context will include the manager and the investor. This group is mainly concerned with the viability of the project. The investment made should have a substantial reward. Also, the lawyer's perspective will be considered; this will ensure that whatever is being done is within the legal boundaries. Furthermore, since the process of acquisition can be accelerated by urgency, the presence of the lawyer's perspective will allow for serious scrutiny of the contract so that the company cannot fall into any cost pitfalls in the future.

Source selection will be another step. After the proposals and quotes have been made, the committee will take time to evaluate the proposals and quotes jointly. This will give the directive of how each of these factors and subfactors will be treated critically to allow for the best projects to be chosen. The source selection will be based on factors that will be disclosed to the contactors. This will include the award criteria, competitive range, and documentation of the process. Finally, a performance measure is determined. This is a scale over time of how the project has fared. This allows the customer to make a decision that is fact-based. Therefore, useful metrics reports should be precise, show a trend, be clearly elaborated, simple, and logically arranged so that it is meaningful to the customer.

References

Deem, R., Greeney, R. J., Keller, G. M., & Wang, J. Y. (2019). AN ANALYSIS OF US ARMY ACQUISITION PROGRAM MANAGER RESPONSIBILITIES, AUTHORITIES, AND PROCESSES (Doctoral dissertation, Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School). DOI:/10945/63446

Zeng, K. (2017). Exploring cybersecurity requirements in the defense acquisition process. Defense AR Journal, 24(2), 372-374. doi./10.1190/17654536.1