Responding to a performance-based solicitation, especially a SOO that seeks contractor-developed solutions, is substantial work for contractors. Likewise, evaluation of what may be significantly different approaches or solutions is much more substantial work for the integrated project team. The team will have to understand the contractor-proposed solutions, assess the associated risks and likelihood of success, identify the discriminators, and do the best-value tradeoff analysis.

Because of this, the acquisition strategy should consider some means of "downselection" or limiting the competitive pool, so that only those contractors with a significant likelihood of winning award will go through the expense of developing proposals. As to the integrated project team, evaluating dozens of solution-type proposals would be overly burdensome.

"Downselection" is a means of limiting the competitive pool to those contractors most likely to offer a successful solution. There are two primary means of downselection in current acquisition methodology: (1) using the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) competitive process and (2) using the "fair opportunity" competitive process under an existing Government-wide Agency Contract (GWAC) or multiple-award contract (MAC).

Even in full and open competitions, there are means of limiting the competitive pool--providing competition as well as efficiency and cost effectiveness for the government and contractors as well. Many in the acquisition community are familiar with the establishment of a competitive range. But there is another technique: using the multistep advisory process in a negotiated procurement. All these methods provide a means to establish a small pool of the most qualified contractors, competing to provide the solution. In each case, the approach leverages competition previously conducted.

Once the competing pool of contractors is established, those contractors enter a period called due diligence. "Due diligence" is used in acquisitions to describe the period and process during which competitors take the time and make the effort to become knowledgeable about an agency's needs in order to propose a competitive solution. It usually includes site visits, meetings with key agency people, and research and analysis necessary to develop a competitive solution tailored to agency requirements. During this time, the competing contractors must have access to the integrated project team and program staff so that the contractors can learn as much as possible about the requirement. It is a far more open period of communication than is typical in more traditional acquisitions.