We now have a recommended reading list of books for Contracting Officers/Specialists and other Acquisition professionals! You may want to consider reading or having these important references on your bookshelf. Many of these books are available through the DAU Knowledge Repository & Acker Archives if you don’t already have your own copy. Intended to assist Contracting and Acquisition professionals interested in broadening their professional knowledge and expertise, this reading list is organized into seven top-level categories:
- Contracting and Purchasing
- Industrial Property
- Small Business
- Business Case Analysis
- Continuous Product & Process Improvement
- Organizational Excellence, Customer Focus & Strategic Transformation
- Leadership and Management
Disclaimer: All books listed here are provided for informational purposes to enhance the professional development of the defense acquisition workforce, and their inclusion here should not in any way be considered as endorsement by the Defense Acquisition University or the Department of Defense. This list should NOT under any circumstances be considered as being complete or all-encompassing and is not meant to endorse the views or works of any particular book, author, organization, or publication. Users are encouraged to conduct their own verification of the information prior to its use. Reliance on or use of the information provided here is solely at the user's own risk.
Contracting and Purchasing
Formation of Government Contracts. Cibinic and Nash (Wolters Kluwer)
Administration of Government Contracts. Cibinic, Nash, and Nagle (Wolters Kluwer)
Contract Management Body of Knowledge. (National Contract Management Association)
Federal Acquisition: Key Issues and Guidance. Compton (Management Concepts)
A History of Government Contracting. Nagle (CCH Publishing)
Government Contracts Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Keyes (Thomson West)
Purchasing and Supply Management. Leenders, Johnson, Flynn, and Fearon (McGraw-Hill Irwin)
Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. Monckzka, Handfield, Giunipero, and Patterson (South-Western Cengage Learning)
Purchasing and Supply Chain Management: Analysis, Strategy, Planning and Practice. Van Weele (Cengage Learning)
Guide to Contract Pricing. Murphy (Management Concepts)
Government Contract Costs and Pricing. Manos (Thomson West)
Cost-Reimbursement Contracting. Cibinic and Nash (Wolters Kluwer)
Performance-Based Contracting. McKinzie and Phillpot. (Government Training Inc.)
Industrial Property
Selected Readings in Defense Contract Property Management. Goetz (National Property Management Association)
Small Business
Small Business Contracting. Oliveros and Phillpot (Government Training Inc.)
Business Case Analysis
The Business Case Guide. Marty J. Schmidt (Solution Matrix Limited)
Business Case Essentials: A Guide to Structure and Content. Marty J. Schmidt (Solution Matrix Limited)
Business Case Analysis: Examples, Concepts & Techniques – Featuring the “8 Day BCA”. James W. Brannock (STS Publications)
Engineering Economy. W.J. Fabrycky and J. H. Mize (Prentice Hill)
Continuous Product & Process Improvement
The Memory Jogger II: A Pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement and Effective Planning. (Goal/QPC-Publication)
Lean Logistics: the Nuts and Bolts of Delivering Materials & Goods. Michel Baudin (Productivity Press)
Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. Clayton M. Christenson, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth (Harvard Business School Press)
The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook. Michael George, David Rowlands, Mark Price and John Maxey (McGraw-Hill)
The Goal. Eliyahu Goldratt (North River Press Publishing)
Organizational Excellence,Customer Focus& Strategic Transformation
Creech Blue: Gen Bill Creech and the Reformation of the Tactical Air Forces, 1978-1984. Lt Col James C. Slife (Air University Press)
Defense Logistics for the 21st Century. William G.T. Tuttle (Naval Institute Press)
Strategic Logistics Management. James Stock and Douglas Lambert (McGraw-Hill)
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't. Jim Collins (Harper Business)
Performance Based Logistics: A Contractor’s Guide to Life Cycle Product Support Management. Steve Geary et al (Supply Chain Visions)
The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things. George Labovitz and Victor Rosansky (John Wiley & Sons)
Augustine’s Laws: A Top Executive Looks at the Complexities & Conundrums of Today’s Business Management. Norman R. Augustine (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
Leading a Learning Revolution: The Story Behind Defense Acquisition University’s Reinvention of Training. Frank J. Anderson, Christopher R. Hardy, and Jeffrey Leeson (Pfeiffer)
Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. Arthur Herman (Random House)
The Innovators Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business. Clayton Christensen (Harper Collins)
Leadership and Management
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen R. Covey (Free Press)
The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization. John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson)
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Charles Duhigg (Random House)
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter (Hyperion)
Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times. Jon M. Huntsman (Pearson Education)
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson, MD (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life. John G. Miller (G.P. Putman’s Sons/Penguin Books)
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything. Stephen M.R. Covey (Free Press)
The Team Memory Jogger: A Pocket Guide for Team Members. (Goal/QPC-Publication)
Project Management Memory Jogger. (Goal/QPC Publication)
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. Oren Harari (McGraw Hill)
Credibility: How Leaders Gain & Lose It, Why People Demand It. James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint)
Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences. Richard K. Betts (Brookings)
Freedom’s Forge. Arthur Herman (Random House)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint)
The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. Diane Vaughan (The University of Chicago)
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success. William Thorndike (Harvard Business Press)
The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations. Dietrich Dorner (Metropolitan Books)
Disclaimer: All books listed here are provided for informational purposes to enhance the professional development of the defense acquisition workforce, and their inclusion here should not in any way be considered as endorsement by the Defense Acquisition University or the Department of Defense. This list should NOT under any circumstances be considered as being complete or all-encompassing and is in no-wise meant to endorse the views or works of any particular book, author, organization, or publication. Users are encouraged to conduct their own verification of the information prior to its use. Reliance on or use of the information provided here is solely at the user's own risk.
