This project was conceived several years ago in discussions between acquisition leadership in the Department of Commerce and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. While the original concept focused broadly on services acquisition, the intervening years (while funding was sought) brought to light the slow progress being made across government in adopting performance-based service acquisition. The single most important reason for this is that the acquisition community is not the sole owner of the challenge, nor can the acquisition community meet the challenge on its own.
While the initial purpose of this virtual guide was to assist the Department of Commerce's acquisition personnel improve their service contracting skills and results, it also has the purpose of educating the greater "acquisition community," including the program managers, program staff, customers, and others whose participation is vital to a successful performance-based acquisition.
From start-up in 2001, this project was conceived as a web-enabled guide that would deliver information in layers, so that users can "drill down" to the required level of detail. It was also envisioned as a knowledge management tool that would capture and connect the web of information on the Internet into the seven critical, strategic steps of performance-based acquisition, a library of guidance, and links to samples and examples.
Volunteers from across government joined the Department and the contractor in the "seven steps team." The members were Tina Burnette, team leader, Department of Commerce; Leslie Andrecs, Department of Commerce; Michael Canales and William Temperley, Department of Defense; Ann Costello, Acquisition Solutions® Maureen McKee, Department of Agriculture; Ronne Rogin, Department of Treasury; and Julia Wise, General Services Administration. In addition, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy was briefed on this project and provided copies on an ongoing basis. To all who participated, I offer my thanks.
We welcome comments, feedback, and additions to this knowledge center on performance-based acquisition. Please send comments to
SevenStepstoPBSA.Feedback@gsa.gov.
Mike Sade
Director Of Acquisition Management & Procurement Executive
Seven Steps Sponsor
FY 2005 Update
GSA and OFPP are working together with an interagency team of volunteers to keep the Seven Steps Guide accurate and current. Some of the original authors remain on the team. In addition to ensuring regulations, policies, and web links are up-to-date, the team is reviewing and posting documents as samples, by step. A thorough quality check is given to these documents and "helpful hints" are provided where the basic document is good, but needs some minor changes to comply with FAR Subpart 37.6.
The Seven Steps 2004 Team (L to R): Ann Costello, Jeff Birch, Leslie Andrecs, Patty Hoover, Julia Wise, Ronne Rogin.
The Original Seven Steps Team (L to R): Ronne Rogin, Leslie Andrecs, Tina Burnette, Ann Costello, Julia Wise, Maureen McKee. Not pictured: Michael Canales and Bill Temperley.
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