POSTSCRIPT III: OUR COMPETITIVE SYSTEM by Vernon J. Edwards

[Vern Edwards]

@formerfed

20 hours ago, formerfed said:

FAR part 12 is short in length.  Someone can carefully read through it in a couple hours.  

And understand and apply it in practice?

18 hours ago, formerfed said:

The regulations and policies for these aren’t complicated.  But instead of reading them closely and just proceeding with the acquisition, 1102s get nervous.

I wonder why? Read this from FAR 12.213, Other commercial practices:

Quote

It is a common practice in the commercial marketplace for both the buyer and seller to propose terms and conditions written from their particular perspectives...  The terms and conditions prescribed in this part seek to balance the interests of both the buyer and seller. These terms and conditions are generally appropriate for use in a wide range of acquisitions. However, market research may indicate other commercial practices that are appropriate for the acquisition of the particular item. These practices should be considered for incorporation into the solicitation and contract if the contracting officer determines them appropriate in concluding a business arrangement satisfactory to both parties and not otherwise precluded by law or Executive order.

Now suppose that a contracting officer, in accordance with FAR 12.102(b), decides to conduct a competition for a commercial service pursuant to FAR Part 15. How should that CO pursue that "common practice" under FAR 15.206(d) and 15.306(d) and the GAO and COFC case law about discussions with offerors in the competitive range?

I am not saying that it cannot be done. I could do it. What I am saying is that it would take a lot of thought and background knowledge to sell that idea to management and legal and then work it out successfully. And I say that some special training in that regard would be very helpful, even essential.

To say that (1) the regulations about commercial items are not complex and that (2) they can be read, understood and applied in a couple of hours are, in my opinion, remarkable assertions. I will have worked in this business for 50 years come this August, and I would not make that claim for myself.

But I will not argue the matter further. We disagree.

[Voyager]

On 2/20/2024 at 6:56 PM, C Culham said:

To reinforce, yours and FormerFed's position seems to suggest everything is fine and dandy and those that have been trained are not applying professional study, intiative, experience, etc.  But it has not by specific examples offered and as such leads to my conclusion regarding training

Okay, I agree we can get riled up over theory but in the end it may do no good.  Instead, I suggest a ceasefire of our academic debate on this thread unless we hear from a current practitioner that can lead us to the example you seek above.  I know who I would like to hear from - she is the FBI Contracting Specialist featured by the late Senator McCain as a shining example of a counterpoint to the Army's handgun acquisition that Vern cites above.  See her SAM.gov Contract Opportunity RFP-OSCU-DSU1503 here: https://sam.gov/opp/cb29a43649fc2efa89f624b8f461e8f3/view

On 2/1/2024 at 7:05 AM, Vern Edwards said:

Whose job is it to know?

Apparently in this excellent example it was, among other teammates, Jennifer Unger, as that is the name that shows up in SAM.

[C Culham]

1 hour ago, Voyager said:

Okay

Well I will upack just a little for you.    Commercial Item yet use of the Uniform Contract Format.  I think FAR 12.303 has a "shall" in it.  SF-26?   And both 52.215-1 and 52.212-1 in the solicitation the latter not tailored.  I stopped there...... 

 

1 hour ago, Voyager said:

ceasefire of our academic debate

Agreed as my case is made and I will leave it at that.

[Voyager]

Carl!  She'll never show until we admit that perfection is the enemy of excellence.  Keep reading it - I have so many questions, like why is Section M the longest section besides C.  We must not prejudge.

[C Culham]

22 minutes ago, Voyager said:

prejudge.

Wouldn't it be post judge?

You are changing the landscape.  I never argued perfection.  I would argue training would support tailoring, use of UCF, etc.  No procurement is perfect. Training leads to excellence.

[formerfed]

7 hours ago, C Culham said:

Training leads to excellence.

What really leads to excellence is market research - understanding the marketplace, knowing what differentiates top providers from the others, finding out from experiences of others what approaches work and what doesn’t,  and especially gathering and applying lessons learned from other buying organizations.

[C Culham]

1 hour ago, formerfed said:

What really leads to excellence is market research - understanding the marketplace, knowing what differentiates top providers from the others, finding out from experiences of others what approaches work and what doesn’t,  and especially gathering and applying lessons learned from other buying organizations.

The discussion in this thread began with an article that provided observations and conclusions regarding use of acquisition processes for a commercial product and services.  I already raised wonder about market research which in truth appears to be unknown.  The thread then morphed to debate over training regarding commercial acquisition.   Your revisit to market research as a premise on your part is but one element that could be an added observation and/or conclusion.  In truth I see it as further support that training helps breed excellence not the single factor that creates the excellence of a commercial acquisition.

[formerfed]

10 hours ago, C Culham said:

In truth I see it as further support that training helps breed excellence not the single factor that creates the excellence of a commercial acquisition.

Agreed.  

[Vern Edwards]

On 2/22/2024 at 8:19 PM, C Culham said:

I already raised wonder about market research which in truth appears to be unknown. 

Emphasis added. Truer words were never written.

FAR 2.101 defines "market research" as follows: "Market research means collecting and analyzing information about capabilities within the market to satisfy agency needs."

Well, that's half-baked and FAR-like, but it's a process of some kind, right? So what are the procedures, sources of information, and techniques of analysis?

Is knowledge of how to do market research supposed to reside in the head of every 1102 like Athena in the mind of Zeus, or do they have to learn it somewhere? Or is it just common sense?

1102s certainly won't learn market research by reading the slightly more than two pages of FAR Part 10, which was added to FAR almost 30 years ago, by FAC 90-32, September 18, 1995. And it has hardly changed, if at all, in the ensuing years.

Why is FAR Part 10 so short? First, because the FAR is not a textbook, and second, because the people who wrote FAR Part 10 did not have a clue about how to conduct buyer/consumer market research. They could not have stood up before an audience of 1102s and extemporaneously described the process, procedures, and techniques in any detail, which means to me that they weren't competent to write a regulation about it and should not have done so. Worse, they didn't see to it that adequate guidance and instruction would be provided to the people they told to do it.

How complicated is market research? Well, the fifth edition of Wiley's Market Research Handbook (2007) is 656 pages long and costs $176.00 new at Amazon. Springer's newer Handbook of Market Research (2022) is 1,132 pages and costs $700.00. Go figure. You can look at the tables of contents online. How pertinent do the contents seem to government buyers? They were written for sellers. Most publications about market research are written for sellers, not buyers. But the FAR authors thought the term sounded good, so they used it. It would have made more sense to give FAR Part 10 the title, Purchasing Research. 

I'm sure that various agencies have published market research guides, DHS has written one. But if you want to learn how business people buy commercial items buy and read Purchasing: Selection and Procurement for the Hospitality Industry, 9th Edition, (2017) by Feinstein, et al. A mere 700 pages. Available at Amazon, but not cheap. Highly rated.

Don't tell me that buying commercial items is simple and that 1102s don't need special training in how to do it. Think choosing and  buying handguns for law enforcement and the military is easy? Handgun buyers know that they are technically complicated in terms of design, especially pistols, and, in combination with the many varieties of ammunition, are remarkably complex systems in terms of performance (reliability, accuracy, lethality, and durability) and maintenance.

BTW, I do not sell training about market research or buying commercial items, and I am not going to do so.

[formerfed]

8 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

Don't tell me that buying commercial items is simple and that 1102s don't need special training in how to do it. Think choosing and  buying handguns for law enforcement and the military is easy? Handgun buyers know that they are technically complicated in terms of design, especially pistols, and, in combination with the many varieties of ammunition, are remarkably complex systems in terms of performance (reliability, accuracy, lethality, and durability) and maintenance.

Here’s a great example of market research by CBP.  They learned from DoD, FBI, and others.  They issued a solicitation, gave offerors three months to respond, used a Justice lab for testing, had field personnel (inspectors, agents, etc.) involved in actual live firing and evaluation of offeror products, conducted negotiations and made award seven months after receipt of responses.  Their award was large in size because it covers all of DHS.  I think just having a team of knowledgeable people in the acquisition and personal weapons processes and spending the effort to understand industry capabilities made the difference.  It doesn’t require an 1102 to be a firearms expert.  Not does it require a PM to be a contracting expert.  But a team of members that understand the landscape leads to success.

CBP