413 – What is PPQ?
In this episode, Kevin and Paul, explain how a past performance questionnaire or a PPQ works in government contracts. While there are many ways to evaluate the past performance of contractors, a PPQ is...
View Article437 – Finding Contract Awards w/Shelley
There are several places in the FAR that direct contracting officers to award products and services against existing contracts BEFORE establishing new ones. There is even a specific provision that...
View Article439 – Federal vs. State / Local Contracting (w/Troy Francis)
Is federal contracting really that different from state and local contracting? In this episode, Kevin welcomes Troy Francis to the podcast to help answer that question. Troy knows the nuances of both...
View Article440 – Hiring from the Same Labor Pool
The US government decided a long time ago to contract out as many services as possible, except for the ones that are “inherently governmental services” (see episode 195 for those). However, the hiring...
View Article441 – Why is this Inherently Governmental?
We talked in episode 440 about how the government awards contracts for lots of services – unless those services are “inherently governmental activities”. We outlined the definition of that in episode...
View Article442 – What are Foreign Military Sales?
The United States government buys a wide variety of things in a variety of ways. In this episode, we cover one of those unique ways: through Foreign Military Sales (FMS). Under FMS, the US government...
View Article443 – What is Pre-Acquisition? (part 1)
Kevin and Paul have covered a LOT of topics on this podcast. In each of the episodes, they map out where a particular topic fits within the Acquisition and/or Execution Time Zones®. (NOTE: For more on...
View Article444 – How Does Pricing Affect the Contract? (w/ Heather Teed)
If we’re going to buy something, we need to know how much it will cost. D’uh, right? The contract defines the terms and conditions of the purchase, while the price determines the value and/or cost of...
View Article445 – What are “Open and Frank” Discussions? (Part 1)
Communication between government and industry matters throughout the acquisition process. In this episode Kevin and Paul dig into another common misconception that gets in the way of effective...
View Article446 – What are “Open and Frank” Discussions? (Part 2)
Communication between government and industry matters throughout the acquisition process. In last week’s episode, we dug into a common misconception that gets in the way of effective communication –...
View Article447 – Professional Compensation Plans with Joe Luetke
The government buys lots of services…but not all service contracts work the same way. There are personal services, non-personal services, Service Contract services, advisory services, and so on. We...
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448 – What is Pre-Acquisition? (part 2)
Episode 443 was Part 1 of Pre-Acquisition communication. In that one we introduced the concept of Pre-Acquisition communication, Kevin and Paul provided some context why it matters. To recap,...
View Article449 – What is Severability?
Contract Severability is one of those concepts that has one meaning in the commercial world, and a slightly different meaning in the GovCon world. In non-government contracts, a simple definition is of...
View Article450 – Types of Solicitations
In the 3 Deciders episode (episode 118), Kevin and Paul explained how the Economic Decider has the funds that are used to buy products and services under government contracts, the Customer has the need...
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451 – Acquisition Forms
Forms. Really? That does not sound very exciting. Fair enough – while “exciting” is not the word most people think of when discussing forms, this topic is relevant and important. Why? Because...
View Article452 – Paths to Competition
In government contracting, there are so many ways to buy products and services. Multiple award, commercial, simplified acquisition, micro purchase, letter contract, GSA contract, logical follow-on,...
View Article453 – Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Plenty of ink has been spent on how government and industry need to communicate more, and better (including by us). However, knowing we are supposed to communicate “better” and knowing how to...
View Article454 – What is a Capture Manager? (w/Jennifer Namvar)
The government awards most contracts using competitive processes. Some of those processes are simple. Some of them are complicated. Sometimes they are so complicated that the process from requirement...
View Article455 – What is Incremental Funding?
Not every contract has the same payment terms. Sometimes we pay in full up front. Sometimes we pay upon completion. Sometimes we pay in parts along the way. Those same payments terms can apply to...
View Article456 – Differences between FED and State-Local w/Troy Francis (Part 2)
In this episode, Kevin is once again joined by Troy Francis. Troy knows the nuances of both Federal and Local contracting because he’s been both a Federal Contracting Officer and now he is a Chief...
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