Dear readers over the holiday season I did my fair share of shopping. Presents for my family were a must, but I also might have added one or two small gifts for myself. Maybe. But here’s the thing, as I hit up the mall and battled my fellow last minute shoppers, I was struck withRead… Read more »
Stocks opened higher last week, but sellers stepped in taking advantage of the light volume trading. Whether it was profit taking or investors selling losing positions for tax purposes, the market gave way at the end of the year, and couldn’t rebound on Friday – the first trading day of the year. Here are theRead… Read more »
It is always difficult when vendor performance on a contract starts going south. The signs are often small at first, a missed deadline, a work product that just isn’t quite what you were expecting, a meeting with stakeholders that does not work out as planned. Then the issues become bigger – multiple missed deadlines, incompleteRead… Read more »
‘Tis the season for end of year reflections. And in 2014, the government technology and acquisition communities had a lot to reflect on. The rollout of healthcare.gov, the launch of 18F, the President’s announcement of a new professional cadre of digital procurers, were just a few innovations and challenges that cropped up this year. TwoRead… Read more »
Cancelling a contract is a drastic step, but sometimes it has to be done. The agency has expended time and money with the vendor for a particular product and things just are not working out. Remedial steps of having regular status meetings with the vendor, amending the contract and making specific work plans to addressRead… Read more »
A few weeks ago on the DorobekINSIDER, host Chris Dorobek made a radical call for a government restart – he suggested doing away with the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The FAR was intended to answer any and every procurement question under the sun, but the resulting document has more than 99 parts and thousands of subchapters.Read… Read more »
Contractor provided training is a cost effective solution to provide high quality training for specific purposes and/or limited durations.
Before the invention of the Internet, libraries depended entirely on card catalogs. Although painstakingly tedious for any librarian, organizing card catalogs is an almost fail-proof method of documenting the overwhelming inventory of any library. And general cataloging standards tend to be standardized across most libraries. Card cataloging or any standardization method can make almost allRead… Read more »
Once a contract is in place, there is a sense of relief and completion. If the service is being performed reasonably well, the contract can become a document that is rarely or never referenced again. Contract amendments are often not considered except at unavoidable points in the relationship such as time extensions, changes in scopeRead… Read more »
Some late selling on Friday and the historically bullish trading day after Thanksgiving turned into a disappointment for the bulls. For the week stocks were up slightly with the I-fund leading the way for the TSP stock funds, and bonds (F-fund) came to life to lead all of the TSP funds with a 0.56% gainRead… Read more »