The Air Force’s Acquistion lead, William LaPlante is launching an initiative to improve the acquisition process called “Bending the Cost Curve”. In a speech at the Atlantic Council he shared that the AF needs to get better with the up-front tasks in the acquisition process — the part between initial concept to production. He acknowledged that everyone is frustrated with the quality and the processes in the early part of acquisition, including getting to RFPs that are issued by the service. He wants to see industry brought in early-on in the development planning to help in the conceptualizing when everyone is just starting to think about a program need.

This is a great idea. To make it work, it is good (and necessary) to talk to industry, vendors, and product and service providers. As Bob Lohfeld points out in an article in Washington Technology last month, too many acquisition program managers and teams have come to believe they are not allowed to have conversations with the potential providers of something they might ultimately buy. Or they are concerned that if they talk with one vendor, they have to talk with all the vendors in order to be open and fair. Not true in either instance. As Mr Lohfeld highlights, the rules in the FAR Part 15 talk to setting a fair and level playing field – if you disclose specific information to one potential offeror you need to make that information available to all.

An acquisition requirement deserves new ways for the community to consider, conceptualize, and start to think about how to meet the need.  Lots of offerors bring new ideas and technologies that could get to an end result. Technology is an enabler and allows us to do and accomplish things in ways that we never thought about a few years ago. Certainly, it is wise to understand that everyone on the non-government side of the discussion ultimately would like to benefit from the business that results and help shape the RFP into something that lends itself to their capabilities. That is the business of the business. However, limiting, filtering, or having no discussions at all is frustrating for everyone on both sides