https://www.wifcon.com/discussion/index.php?/discover/The Wifcon Forums and Blogs - 27 Years Online - All ActivityenAs a consultant, one thing I and the company I worked for did was conduct assessments of government procurement offices. We performed these at the requests of various government agencies. The requests generally came from very senior officials who were concerned about quality and responsiveness of the contracting functions and wanted negative issues identified. What we found across the government was a wide range of capabilities of 1102 personnel with some I would categorize as professional and too many as described in this quote from the Tillipman and Schooner article as the least experienced. I’ll share two examples of what I view as professional. Back with Bill Clinton was president, he promoted a “Welfare to Work” initiative. A contract specialist/contracting officer decided on her own to incorporate the initiative into the source selection process for an upcoming competition. She briefed agency management of her plans and proceeded. An offerors planned commitment to hiring welfare recipients into contract performance was evaluated in their proposals along with other aspects. What she did as a professional was recognize a government objective and crafted a unique selection plan to help achieve it. Once award was made and word got out she was quickly recognized for her accomplishment. She and I were invited to the White House for a meeting with Al Gore. Another example is a contract chief of the IT branch. Over time his positive contributions and successful support of various CIO actions by devising strategies tailed to needed CIO outcomes. He quickly became respected and valued by the CIO office staff and was a key participant in all planning. One day he informed me that the CIO asked him to attend his regular staff meetings. It was because the CIO respected his critical thinking, judgement, and insights on all matters and not just contracting. Unfortunately there are too many conditioned to merely process assigned actions by following laid out steps, copying and pasting from other actions, and avoiding independent thinking and analysis. These are the non-professional.Sat, 07 Mar 2026 19:28:19 +0000That is meaningless in the context of my two questions. Just because you have a job that is considered professional for payment purposes does not mean that you are, in fact, professional in the way you work. I'm sorry that you are confused. It's regrettable. I focus on COs because they are the apex of 1102-dom. The statement I made that you quote is still my view. I think my meaning was clear in context. In any case, I don't intend to explain it further. You either get it or you don't. Do you have any further response to the two questions? What is the distinction between professional and other work? What personal characteristics distinguish professionals from other workers? You have already addressed them. Do you have anything more to say? Or do you want to challenge or otherwise comment on any of the assertions I made in my Thursday at 07:36 AM post, or anyone else's assertions?Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:31:21 +0000The 1102 series is by definition a professional series. What I believe is not true is that someone that occupies an 1102 position possess the characteristics of a professional but I would offer that by personal experience many do. I am confused by the discussion in this thread as it is true that not all 1102 contract specialists (1102) are Contracting Officers (CO). Yet the words CO are being used interchangeably when discussing what professional work is. This is where the confusion is as I believe there are salient differences between the two titles beyond the fact of legal authority that is vested in a CO. In the medical field an intern, resident and attending physician are all professionals yet level of responsibility and autonomy are the difference are they not? So why can it not be the same with regard to 1102 to 1102 and then to CO? And if the same does not it change perspective of devotion as well yet this statement still rings true?Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:04:25 +0000I’ll add another indicator of 1102 professionalism is when the program office you support (client, customer, requisitioned, or whatever) views you as valuable and perhaps essential. I gave thought to the issue of how does an office increase the degree of professionalism. One is make that part of personnel recruitment. Don’t select a candidate unless you see a strong sense of potential. Another is use that as factors in employee performance appraisals and individual development plans (IDP). Recognize and reward examples of successful demonstration of professionalism and widely publicize it as model behavior. This sends the message that if you want to get head, model this behavior.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 23:04:51 +0000A profession is different from a non-professional occupation as the professional occupation has developed as set of formal qualifications based upon education; generally has some form of an apprenticeship; has an examination of an individual's skills and knowledge as they progress in their development, and has one or more regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members. While non-professional occupations may have some of these characteristics, they generally do not have all of them. Generally, a person in a professional occupation has a high degree of developed skills with deep knowledge of the domain or specifics within the domain; abides by a moral code of ethics and/or conduct; and in general has autonomy in their decision making and the application of their trade/skills in the day to day course of operation. Applying these questions to the 1102, I often think of some of Vern's posts from many years ago how in many offices the 1102 has become a clerk, more focused on the process of contracting rather than the application of art of contracting. In today's federal government, it seems like there are many 1102s that would be better coded as 1105 procurement techs as they are experts in the process of preparing contract document and files, but often flounder when left to their own to think about the "why" they are doing what they are doing. I am also reminded of a gift that I received from an "old salt" contracting officer that I studied under when I got my first SAP warrant. He gave me a framed document that he attributed to Vern Edwards, someone that he spoke very highly of. That document is titled "The Attributes of a Successful Contracting Officer." Having worked in several different offices, I can see a clear distinction between those Contracting Officers that display the 12 attributes described in this document which to me are the professional 1102s vs the 1102s in the offices that are really better classified as 1105s but have been converted to 1102s as the 1105 series has been phased out.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 22:43:45 +0000https://www.wifcon.com/discussion/index.php?/blogs/entry/6255-smallgovcon-week-in-review-march-2-6-2026/Happy March! The weather is turning warmer, but also stormier in our parts. We hope everyone is thawing out from winter and enjoying some nicer weather. Please enjoy the articles from the Week in Review, with updates on the FAR overhaul, AI in government, and adoption of CMMC. And note that key US historical documents will making a journey across the US soon, and may come to site near you. The first stop is Kansas City, Missouri, right down the road from us, where the documents will be transferred to the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Congress is as busy as ever, and DHS is still not funded Major historical documents start journey across US as part of nation’s 250th anniversary celebration Former USAID employees mark one year since major agency cuts Agencies begin to shed Anthropic contracts following Trump’s directive What rights do AI companies have in government contracts? OPM’s HR IT consolidation effort hit with new obstacles Appeals Court Clears Path for Trump Administration to Cancel Federal Union Contracts; IRS, Fiscal Service Terminate NTEU Agreements THE REVOLUTIONARY FAR OVERHAUL: Did It Eliminate More Than 2,700 Nonstatutory Requirements? The White House wants quicker AI adoption. Can agencies make it happen? Department of War Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Program Small Business Impacts Roundtable The post SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 2-6, 2026 first appeared on SmallGovCon - Government Contracts Law Blog.View the full articleFri, 06 Mar 2026 21:12:59 +0000@WifWaf I won't respond to your last post. Please don't continue that line of discussion. I don't understand what it has to do with the nature of professionalism and GS-1102 work. The issues are (1) the nature of professionalism and (2) whether GS-1102s work like professionals. Please stick to those issues. Refute my remarks if you like, or amend or add to them, or post your own thoughts about the two issues.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 20:57:33 +0000Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:51:41 +0000https://www.wifcon.com/discussion/index.php?/blogs/entry/6254-gao-sustain-failure-to-acknowledge-solicitation-amendment-was-a-material-defect/Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:13:41 +0000We're talking about government procurement. Sometimes, events impose workflows and ops tempos on us by outside events like, say, pandemics, natural disasters, and wars, in which case contracting officers must act in the real world, not some ideal world. Think of the people working now to procure resupply of the weapons being used by the Department of Defense (War) in our war with Iran. Emotional intelligence is the ability to deal with the real. You gotta come prepared to deal with the work that arrives at your desk, when it arrives and under the circumstances in which it arrives, and with the speed which it requires. That's part of professionalism. Workforce improvement would develop professionals capable of dealing with the real, as well as the ideal.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:03:58 +0000This got me thinking about IQ versus Emotional Intelligence,@Vern Edwards, and reminded me that there is another way to learn: to achieve a state of flow. “Flow” is achieved when the mind is optimistic, focused, and unstressed while being pushed to just the apex of its abilities. That apex then goes a little higher the next day. Scaling this up to an office where flow is an everyday occurrence would equate to, and could even outdo (through higher grit), those offices with a high median IQ. If only our workflows and ops tempos could always be structured this way, you would get your wish of workforce improvement. At least you would in a dumbo like me.Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:53:26 +0000Absolutely excellent message, Vern. These questions you raised should be something every contracting person needs to ask themselves and honestly answer. Where those answers show shortcomings, they either should decide to take steps to self improve or consider another job.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:51:28 +0000I asked those two questions because I believe that the RFO and other regulatory reforms will not accomplish much. I think the workforce is at the heart of its problems. I have attached an article published by two distinguished members of the faculty of The George Washington University Law School, Jessica Tillipman and Steven Schooner, "FEATURE COMMENT: Institutional Amnesia And The Neglect Of The Federal Acquisition Workforce." Attached. I suspect that most of you have not read it. Here is a tantalizing quote: Neglect of the workforce? Yes. Especially by the workforce itself. Now to my questions. Professional work requires devotion. There are no regular hours or days off. The difference between professionals and other workers is that professionals merge life and work. They are devoted. A job title does not make one a professional. One is a professional, or not, depending on how one lives and thinks. That does not mean that one must neglect family, forsake other interests and activities, and shun entertainment. (Watch "The Pitt"! Professionals at work!) It means that you are fascinated by what you do and are devoted to it. If you are a contracting officer in an agency or office devoted to the use of space technology to achieve mission objectives and you haven't read a book about space technology, then you are not, in my opinion, a professional space technology contracting officer. You might be good at processing procurement paperwork, but you are not a professional space technology contracting officer. If you are a contracting officer busily involved in source selections but you haven't read a book about decision analysis, you might be good at assembling files, but you are not a professional source selection contracting officer. How can you critique requiring activitys' statements of work if you have not taught yourself to write one and made yourself proficient at doing it? Don't count on DAU or FAI to provide you with professional training. Don't think you are a professional because you attend NCMA conferences. Don't think you are a professional because you call yourself one. You are a professional, or not, depending on how you live your work and prepare yourself to live it. I know that some will be angry with me for saying these things, like one member of the "I Hate Vern" club at reddit 1102. 🤗 But either blame yourself if 1102 work is not what you'd like it to be or work to make it better. FEATURE COMMENT_ Institutional Amnesia And The Neglect Of The Fed (1).pdfThu, 05 Mar 2026 15:36:10 +0000I can answer that question. For civilian agencies, Orders are the vast majority, but as you suggest, this distinction is no longer as important as it once was. What once were C contracts are now orders. We have so many GVT-wide contract vehicles - GSA lists 381 of them. Thousands of internal-use-only IDIQs and BPAs. The need to make 'C' contracts is increasingly rare - FAR 15 is the last resort. Consider 75FCMC23F0133 Current Sources of Income and Employment Verification Services. It provides a critical service that is public-facing, complex and high-stakes. Many millions of Americans applying for federal benefits every year rely on it. If it broke it would make the news. It obligates a bit under $100MM per year. Ceiling is $2B over 5 years, First RFI went out more than year before the RFQ was issued. The largest action its agency awarded that year. Evaluation was long and complicated. It is a FAR 16.505 order. It's not on sam.gov. The SEC has about 40 people in the contracting occupational series whose base pay is more than $200,000. All 20 contracting personnel at the Federal Reserve makes more than $180,000. At least 18 at the FDIC make over $250,000. How are things going in these agencies who clearly aren't bound by normal GS pay scale constraints? These are tiny offices, I grant you, but they would be an interesting study in what happens when 1102 salaries are much higher.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 22:10:26 +0000So true. The purchasing agent issue is even more complicated now. So many orders of all types are based on tradeoff selection rather than just price and are significant in terms of value and complexity. Purchasing agent job descriptions and position standards assume orders are for low dollar value and non-complex commodities.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:49:33 +0000Just as aside. I found this in the last couple of days when doing research regarding threads in Forum. I am always intrigued about how long some topics have been discussed but never resolved. 8 years or more for 1105's and even AI! Reflections from NCMA World CongressReflections from Chicago at the end of day one at NCMA World Congress 2017 AI or Bring back GS 1105s? The consensus was that Contracting Officers and 1102s, Contract Specialists, spend too much time cWed, 04 Mar 2026 19:12:51 +0000This sparked lots of thoughts from me. When I started out in the government, this type arrangement existed both in my duty station as an intern and the first regular duty station. It was very effective and contracting officers were greatly respected for their knowledge and experience. Obtaining a warrant was very different and involved written application and grueling interviews by a board of senior officials. Very few warrants were granted. But the arrangement worked well. An interesting study would involve seeing how many orders versus formal contracts are done by 1102 contract specialists. I think the result might shock some. Between higher SAT thresholds, orders placed under GSA Schedule contracts, and all the orders under GWACS and IDIQ contracts, that will comprise a good bit of contracting workload. I just saw Navy anticipates over $5 billion of orders in their Seaport contract pool this year alone. OPM will need to change their Position Classification Standards for something like this to happen. Much weight for higher grades in the 1102 series is based on supervisory duties. But I know from personal experience, one can’t be the best possible contracting officer when a large portion of your time and efforts goes to supervisory duties. On the reverse side, the standards for a purchasing agent need revised to reflect what goes on with placing orders today versus decades ago where a GS-07 or 09 often tops out. On a similar note, the traditional procurement clerk duties largely have changed. But a typical 1102 performs much non contracting work related to automation. None of this envisioned in formal job functions by anyone. A comprehensive examination of all this is needed.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:39:00 +0000I have been asked for suggestions and I have made some, but I never volunteered any. I just spent about an hour talking with someone in the Pentagon who is working on acquisition reform. Among other things I said that acquisition reform through regulatory reform is hopeless, a fool's errand. That's not to say that elimination of some rules would not be helpful. But the only way to real acquisition reform is through workforce reform. If I were in charge of acquisition workforce reform, CO selection, appointment, and advancement would be intensely competitive. The CO job would be vey different than it is today, more attractive, and higher-paying. There would be many fewer CO appointments, and appointment would require demonstrated mastery of concepts, principles, processes, procedures, methods, and techniques. Most contract specialists would be purchasing agents, and I would bring back procurement clerks. Education and training would be challenging and intense. Those who fail would be told to seek other employment.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:58:48 +0000No sir. My inspriation! Here are some but not all of the references I had encountered in the past when going back quite honestly to the history you posted about professionalization of a GS series to stuff I encounter through to today. Such as the what is the basis behind professional General Schedule classification standard. Various editorials by folks like Indeed. An orgainzation www.psychologicalscience.org And the US Department of Labor as demonstrated by this https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17d-overtime-professional NCMA Standards and Practices. All references that in my casual but continued experience over fovever as a professional that I encountered that addressed a professional worker. I will say as I reached back I did encounter the typical AI responses but I did not stop there but went on to find what I thought I had encountered and read before. My inspiration that found the references.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:53:39 +0000I think the Administration is looking for feedback, suggestions, and new ideas. Despite issuing an EO initially to get things going, it appears they are looking for a process that continuously evolves and improves. They know industry has lots of constructive thoughts and are open to adopting those that are beneficial. They also don’t want to keep things that don’t help as well as evidenced by the four year sunset provision. This looks like a great idea. They can quickly scan through suggestions and perhaps adopt promising ones soon https://www.acquisition.gov/content/far-overhaul-community-crowdsourcing-campaignWed, 04 Mar 2026 15:20:21 +0000@C Culham Ah... AI entries, or AI inspired. Well, if we're going to do that, here's another: I like this one better.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:07:00 +0000Professional work requires advanced specialized knowledge of a subject with that knowledge acquired through education above the level of high school with education/experience continuing in the particular field. Other work does not. Professional work is nonroutine work that is intellectual in character where other work is routine mental effort. Professional work applies the intellectual knowledge to grasp, analyze, and communicate complex and abstract ideas. Other work does not. Professional work requires high ethical standards and integrity and might be supported by a certification or license. Other work does not yet might be supported by some type of certification or license such as skilled labor. Personal characteristics of a professional are reliability, organization, empathy and emotional stability. Accountability for actions, ability to change, positive attitude and a strong adherence to ethical work are also characteristics of professional workers. Other workers may demonstrate some of these characteristics but at lower levels.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:05:47 +0000Maybe so.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:17:29 +0000My question was about using an exception (and now waiver) to that process. I don’t think you answered.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:32:52 +0000A profession has professional standards and responsibilities such as specialized training on a complex topic (not necessarily education), ethical standards and codes of conduct including accountability, and continuous learning requirements (formal or informal). Of course entities like OPM and NCMA have their own definitions, but in my mind, the more rigorous standards you require, the more it starts to look like a profession. The interest and ability to adhere to the above. Professionals hold themselves and others accountable to the standards, they demonstrate critical thinking and sound judgement in regulated/complex/vague/ambiguous situations, they share their knowledge to improve and advance the profession. Most importantly, professionals study (broad and deep).Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:26:01 +0000