Small Business Conference is Another Success

The Small Business conference proved to be an interesting and informative day. In addition to plenary sessions at the beginning and end of the day, and an excellent lunch with leaders, there were four breakout sessions. Highlights from these included:

- Earned Value Management session – there was lots of dialogue around the challenges of complying with EVM reporting requirements. The consensus was that EVM requires following basic project management planning principles; having a Performance Measurement Baseline is essential; and an integrated baseline review is critical in order to get buy-in and agreement from both sides. The participants also discussed options for getting an EVMS validated by the government.
- Performance Based Acquisition session – the dialogue moved to a variety of proposal and RFP topics with perspectives offered from both government and industry. The consensus was that there must be clearly measureable requirements in order for performance based contracts to work. Both sides agreed that the government should not be using PBA for staff augmentation projects or O&M projects due to the lack of proper metrics, although this appears to be a common practice. All of the panelists agreed that “personal services” is a normal course of business and that these types of contracts are often ill masked with a performance based component. Many participants agreed that there is a “surprising lack of candor on both sides” as it relates to acquisition.
- Evolving Procurements: Award Winning Strategies session - the first part of the discussion focused on procurements that involve clearance requirements. The panelists provided tips, which apply to both small and large businesses, in getting staff through the clearance process. The second part of the discussion focused on providing guidance and resources for small business to help identify and win contracting opportunities.
- Partnering for a Winning Team session – the focus was on writing legal teaming and subcontracting agreements. Key lessons for writing these agreements were provided including: be sure to include a definitive statement of work with number of hours/people and compensation of parties; state the duration of the agreement in place; make the sure government knows that if the contract is awarded to the prime, the prime will subcontract to the subcontractor; and do not flow down or allow to be flowed down a termination of convenience clause.

All in all it was a day filled with lots of dialogue and that makes for a great day in my book. Thanks to the planning team led by chairs Joel Horwitz and Marc Weisman – great job! Another bonus, Vish Sankaran. HHS, one of the morning plenary panelists, wants to meet with me to discuss how he can get more involved in ACT-IAC. The more good we do, the more government wants to engage. So let’s all keep it going!

Leslie