The most important foundation for an acquisition is the intended effect of the contract in supporting and improving an agency's mission and performance goals and objectives (reported to OMB and Congress under the Results Act's strategic and annual performance planning processes). Describing an acquisition in terms of how it supports these mission-based performance goals allows an agency to establish clearly the relationship of the acquisition to its business, and it sets the stage for crafting an acquisition in which the performance goals of the contractor and the government are in sync.

This mission-based foundation normally must be established by or in cooperation with people who work in the program area that the resources will support when they are acquired. (This is why assembling the team is the first step in a performance-based acquisition.) Again, note that the focus is not what resources are required; the focus is what outcome is required.

With this foundation, when the planning process is complete, an agency should be able to demonstrate clearly how an individual acquisition's performance objectives will assist in achieving the agency's mission and goals.

In addition to the Government Performance and Results Act, the President's Management Agenda has added the requirement for performance-based budgeting. (See www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/mgmt.pdf, Government-wide Initiative No. 5 .) This links funding to performance, and ensures that programs making progress towards achieving their goals will continue to receive funding. Conversely, programs unable to show adequate progress may lose option-year funding.