The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) is hoping that third time really is the charm in its seemingly desperate attempts at getting agencies to properly document contractor performance using the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). Although similar memos in 2009 and 2011 (here and here) focused on this issue of poor past performanceRead… Read more »
Last week we told you about TopCoder. (You can access the entire interview here). But basically TopCoder is member based group of more than 460,000 coders from around the world, that harnesses the power of crowd-sourcing to achieve goals. It seems fairly straightforward right? But, Mike Lydon, the Chief Technology Officer, told Chris Dorobek onRead… Read more »
Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator Joe Jordan recently got some much needed feedback on the debate about insourcing and outsourcing, and how those decision are being made. However, the insourcing versus outsourcing issue is not just external to the government. A recent trend seems to be developing where Contracting Officers are inserting VetBiz verificationRead… Read more »
The link below leads to my article with this title published in the Winter 2013 issue of FedTech Magazine. Once again Congress is seeking to strengthen the Federal CIO position throught legislation. The draft legislation proposed by Congressman Darryl Issa would strengthen the CIOs’ authority in the areas of budgets and human resources, but itRead… Read more »
By Michael Ipsaro, Technical Director, PMP, CCE/A Sound familiar? A complex professional service contract is awarded using the LPTA approach…..it costs millions more than expected. A recurring supply of widgets or routine services is obtained using a Best Value approach. The delivery is delayed months and when combined with the final price of the contract…..resultsRead… Read more »
March 1, 2013—Sequestration Day. This morning our 13 year-old son was reading the Wall Street Journal article on sequestration and asked me a question only a kid could ask: “So Dad, if I had a penny would I have more money than the government?” His question led to a long conversation about the budget, howRead… Read more »
A study conducted by the Association of Women Voters of America {AWVA} in 2012 revealed there are several characteristics female voters find attractive in male candidates running for local public offices {i.e. County Boards, City Councils, School Boards, Township Offices, Village Boards, Parishes and Boroughs etc.}. The characteristics that seem to attract to women votersRead… Read more »
Many government agencies are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to build line of business solutions using an approach that Microsoft calls xRM. One of the challenges is to calculate the cost of such an implementation. One of the questions I am asked most frequently by clients is to estimate the cost of a software implementation project.Read… Read more »
Article By John Coombs, Fellow, CFCM, DAWIA III On a trip to San Diego I watched a Navy destroyer slip quietly under the Coronado Bridge. I remembered a phrase I’ve repeated many times throughout my career as a procurement leader and manager: “Don’t try to dial up an aircraft carrier in port to the perfectRead… Read more »