Tag Archives: acquisition

T-Shaped/H-Shaped Contracting Officers

Recently the US Digital Services and Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued an OMB Challenge; in it they discuss how contracting officers need to be more knowledgeable in digital services procurements. (Digital Services seems to be the new 18F-ish buzzword for user-centric software development, though they also reference cloud-based services…)

In this challenge, they mention creating depth of knowledge in digital services procurement, however they also suggest a desire to increase their business savviness, though they don’t express exactly what is meant.

T-shaped people have both depth and breadth of expertiseThis prompts me to simply point out that contracting officers and specialists (as well as any acquisition-related professional) are needed to aspire to become generalizing specialists or T-shaped people.  What do I mean by this?  For a contracting officer, this means becoming not only steeped in contracting services, but knowing enough about information technology to understand what may or may not apply to procurements. I’d also suggest getting more knowledgeable in their department’s or agency’s mission and understanding their needs earlier on is what will also aid them in becoming better at digital services procurements.

The challenge wants a CORE-Plus curriculum; IMHO this indicates that the government is interested in beginning to create contracting officers that have more breadth.  This helps attune their contributions to become more valuable as their knowledge increases to better align with the services being procured.  In some ways the desire to have contracting officers undergo a CORE-Plus certification, means they will be more like H-shaped people with some deper knowledge of digital services technologies as well.

Contracting, particularly in the government, is a complex undertaking.  As someone who maintained several DAWIA (Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act) certifications myself, I can attest to how valuable it is for personnel to have a broader understanding for what they are acquiring and how it fits into the needs of the organization that will utilize it.

For an excellent general write-up on what T-shaped people are, drop by Darren Negraeff’s post The Importance of T-Shaped Individuals.  It contains links to further reading and is also where the T-shaped image above comes from…

Another Move Back to Central IT for the Feds?

Federal Computer Week recently ran an opinion article by Michael Garland, a former BearingPoint procurement veep and currently under contract to help the government with Acquisition Reform; you can read this article here: “Why acquisition reforms fall short“.

In this article, Mr Garland states the following, “…there is no centralized, integrated strategy supported by a corresponding organizational structure. The government has been intensely fragmented when it comes to IT acquisition.”  He then purports how the Government should act as a centralized enterprise when it comes to acquisition and management of IT. He begins with a statement that the Government acts as a “holder” of a portfolio (much like a financial portfolio) and then later states the following:

“That approach lacks cohesion and inhibits the ability to develop and exploit best practices. It has been an ad hoc structure devoid of an enterprise strategy. The fragmentation also hinders the ability to develop valued expertise or deploy any of the various continuous improvement methodologies that have been so useful for the private sector.”

Having worked for many an agency as a Fed, Navy officer, or contractor, I can say that centralization causes many woes, the largest one being that no central IT strategy (acquisition or otherwise) can be attuned to an Agency’s unique needs.  Integrating custom systems of systems command and control software for a Naval ship is entirely different than acquiring a human resources application, to deploying a mortgage loan lending package, to building a custom-built analytical program for determining pesticide safety.  It appears his mental model is all about cost efficiencies and not value production.

What can be promulgated to help each agency is guidance (not rules) for helping procurement officials make the appropriate decisions on contract types so that risk can be minimized and managed effectively locally, while also producing maximum benefit/value for the Agency’s mission for supporting the American people. Central rules destroy customer experiences in almost every industry. (Actually only the most risk averse/safety-centric industries gain from central rules.)  Central rules sets are designed for cost efficiency at the expense of effectiveness in delivery; I contend this is not a strategy to pursue.

I also contend that a portfolio of holdings is EXACTLY what we want; and what we want to extend is thinking that helps our brokers (the Agencies) invest better on our behalf in ways that respect their missions.

Think alignment over control…

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Follow-up: a colleague passed me a pointer to an 18F article on Ghost Writing RFPs. This is a step in the right direction if this is used to enable improvement throughout agencies in how they write RFPs.  Unfortunately, at the point of writing an RFP, an acquisition strategy may already have been made and depending on the flexibility and remaining options (in terms of time) to modify these later, the various Departments and Agencies may have a tough time taking advantage of this service.