A presentation to Defense Acquisition University by John Gilligan.

1. Practical Approaches to Address
Government Contracting Problems
John M. Gilligan
Defense Acquisition University
ISA 320

2. Common Government Contracting
Problems
• Source Selection takes too long and costs too much
money
– Too many bidders
– Too much calendar time and costs too much
• Difficulty in locking down requirements
• Fear of protests limits government-industry
interaction and drives up acquisition costs
• Failure to get innovative or cost saving ideas once on
contract
• Too few and inexperienced acquisition staff
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3. Problem: Source Selection takes too long
and costs too much money
Best Practices:
• Rapid down selection of prospective offerors
• Lock down (and publish) contract award date;
scope source selection tasks to fit schedule
• Use oral proposals with real time Q&A of
bidding team
• Limit emphasis on out-year pricing
Objective of Source Selection is to pick a partner not to get a
perfect contract (which will change as soon as it is signed). 3

4. Problem: Difficulty in locking down
requirements
• Best practices:
– Promote extensive industry dialogue prior to RFP
using interactive group sessions regarding contract
structure, evaluation criteria, general solution
approach
– Field evolving solution using “Time Box”
approach—requirements scoped to accommodate
fixed time and costs
Open dialogue between developer and (real) users and
iterative short duration projects 4

5. Problem: Fear of protests limits
government-industry interaction
• Note: Most protests due to poor
communication
• Best practice: Improve Communication
1. Stick to published process and timing
2. Keep industry informed of any delay or change
realizing that every change has a (big) cost to
industry
3. Non Select Debriefs done on contractor site with
senior management present
Government has significant control over the potential for protest!5

6. Cost growth and failure to get innovative
or cost saving ideas once on contract
• Use significant contract incentives (e.g., award
fee outside normal fee) to motivate continued
innovation
• Understand and manage program momentum
as way to reduce overall program cost
Industry only has so many “A” teams;
“A” teams are deployed based on ROI.
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7. Problem: Too Few & Inexperienced
Acquisition Staff
• Best practices:
– Use collaboration and on-line support/training to better
leverage limited expertise
– Convene government-industry acquisition
strategy/advisory panels early in the process
– Don’t try to put all terms/performance parameters in
“concrete” at the start of the contract.
Keep it simple and commit to small increments--
reduces risk and increases likelihood of success
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