BrettK

REA'n Maker - want to borrow my rake to chase the young'uns from your yard? Seriously though, thank you all for your candor on this topic.

Thanks for your responses. Both are quite helpful.

I searched the site and could find nobody discussing the NCMA GCMS for this (or prior) years. I have questions! Have you attended in the past? Are you going this year (Dec 5-6 in Bethesda, MD)? Is this a well attended conference by people who participate in Wifcon? Why or why not? Is it worthwhile? Do you feel vendors get a lot of opportunities to interact with federal decision makers there?

So in order to understand Price Reduction for Defective Certified Cost or Pricing Data the reader is expected to have, what, two PhDs?

Here is the data I got for the parts you mentioned. Still looks like a decrease in Gunning Fog for each: Part 13 1995: 13.98 2022: 13.69 Part 25 1995: 13.51 2022: 13.25 Part 31 1995: 16.55 2022: 15.41

Really interesting idea. So I ran an older version of the FAR through Gunning Fog readability index. According to that non-scientific reading, the old FAR was written at the 16.55 level (college senior to college graduate). The most recent FAR is written at 14.32 (college sophomore to junior). From a reading index level, it is less complex now. I'm sure that doesn't track with your findings.

Feel free to DM or email me. I'll put on a bulletproof vest just in case it gets ugly.

BTW, the most interesting thing I learned about the FAR in terms of word count, having counted all years that were electronically available to me, was that it was not a linear expansion as I expected. There were some years parts were replaced or removed casuing a decrease from the prior year. It was much more of a jagged trend that eventually made its way upwards from 1995 - present.

It was a group effort. Thoughts?

I understand and I did not end up using it_depends' info. I have good word counts for the 1995 FAR and the 2022 FAR and compared them to the number of words in Harry Potter series for impact. I thought it came out nicely. If you're interested, the graphic is on this page and also embedded in the white paper that can be downloaded from the same page. https://www.bidscale.com/whitepaper

Thank you for this! I still did word count but this is useful as well.

On topic but not particularly relevant to this argument: Remember that as of last month, there is now the added "Significant Strength" as a potential label as well. https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000740-22-DPC.pdf

Ha! I've caught my limit and am grateful. Just watching now.

Rats. The FAR shows italics for those subsections but doesn't specifically state they should be used. I missed it.

Amazing! Looking forward to having this reference in my toolkit. Thank you!

So new I couldn't even spell government contracting 9 months ago!

FAR 31.205-6 (o)(2)(iii)(A)(2)(ii)

For some reason, I was missing the archive section on Acquisition.gov. Got it now. Many thanks. If I get this made, I will share here.

Is there a reliable repository for all prior versions of the FAR that you would recommend as the source of truth? It's easy to get the most current, or sporadic yearly versions, but I cannot seem to locate all of them in one place in a standard format.

Interesting approach, Bob. Not sure I could effectively paint the complete picture using this but it is a different way to consider the problem for sure. I don't think I have that kind of special effort in me, Vern.

Nice. I can only imagine how many criminal cases were solved as a result of this project! Using an SOO led to a better product than a more prescriptive approach would have. The trade off was, what, more time to evaluate and compare the proposed solutions?

Yes, this is my exact problem. I know the FAR has grown and not shrunk over time. I also know the electronic versions counting pages are not exactly comparable to the paper versions of yesteryear. What might be a good way to illustrate visually the increase in complexity over time? I would have thought someone would have already created a nifty infographic for this but it might me up to me to do.

We know that amendments are added and the number of pages increases but has anyone ever seen an historical account, by year, of the increased length of the FAR since its inception? Even better would be a chart showing the change in volume.

I'm looking to collect some stories where the CO, COR, or other expert in contracting is the hero of the story. What amazing dot connecting, last minute hail Mary or ridiculously creative solution sticks out for you?

Value is often defined as Quality divided by Cost. More nuanced, Value = Benefits (Perceived Quality X Perceived Service) / Risks (Cost X Time) Still has subjective components but comparable...and math!