SpendLogic has received an award from DARPA to research the government's calculation and application of profit objectives, as they relate to R&D contracts. Currently, this is accomplished using the Weighted Guidelines. In industry, the Weighted Guidelines is generally regarded as a game - a subjective set of rules that have little or no bearing on reality. Similarly, in a conversation with one Contract Specialist recently, it was noted that the WGL "uses magic to come up with a profit value." This comment was tongue-in-cheek, but the point made aligned with the position of Industry: The values resulting from a Weighted Guidelines analysis are generally arbitrary and mysterious with little or no obvious relation to the work being completed.
I'm looking for anyone that might have knowledge on how the WGL calculations came to be. For example, WHY is the standard value for performance risk 5%? Why not 4.72% or 6.39%? I'm familiar with the regulatory history, but would like to know more about the origins of the calculations themselves.
Anybody have this knowledge or source material tucked away somewhere?