Form the Team
Starting any service acquisition requires an integrated, cross functional team effort. It takes many perspectives to understand and develop the requirement and the acquisition strategy to achieve the needed mission outcomes.
Review Current Strategy
Reviewing the Current Strategy, Step Two of the Service Acquisition process, captures your current condition and identifies what improvements are needed. This step begins the process of identifying the risks associated with your acquisition and how they will be addressed in your planning.
Market Research
Market Research is a cross functional responsibility. It identifies providers of the type of service to acquire. This can inform you of how other organizations, both public and private, define and acquire these services. Good Market Research builds a solid foundation for your acquisition strategy and will help shape how you structure your performance requirement.
Requirements Definition
Requirements Definition is the most important and perhaps the hardest step because it captures all aspects of the requirement you want to put on the contract. During this phase you will complete your risk analysis, Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGE), and requirements document. The Requirements Roadmap tool is used to develop key documents such as your Performance Work Statement (PWS), Statement of Objectives (SOO), or Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP).
Acquisition Strategy
Your Acquisition Strategy determines the business arrangement (type of contract and incentive arrangement) that will exist between you and the contractor and the method you will use in selecting the contractor.
Execute the Strategy
Execute the Strategy puts all your planning and development into action resulting in a good contract award. It provides an opportunity to seek industry feedback to refine your requirement and ensure a healthy competition and best value for your stakeholder.
Performance Management
During Step Seven of the Acquisition process, you will Manage the Performance during the life of the contract. This is the goal of the preceding six steps because it starts the delivery of the services your stakeholders and customers rely on to execute their mission. Performance must be continuously reviewed and adjusted as requirements or funding change.
