IMPORTANCE OF THE SOW

In the past, the government stressed the use of formal government-approved specifications and standards when describing requirements; however, that is no longer the case. Current policy encourages the acquisition of commercial items (i.e., any item, other than real property, that is of a type customarily used by the general public or by nongovernment entities for purposes other than governmental purposes) or nondevelopment items (i.e., previously developed items or previously developed items that require only minor modifications of a type customarily available in the commercial marketplace). In other words, government agencies now must first consider acquiring supplies or services available in the commercial marketplace rather than using government specifications and standards.

Agencies are permitted to choose whichever requirements documents they deem to be most suitable. They may use existing requirements documents (federal or DoD specifications and standards), modify or combine existing documents, or create new requirements documents. When creating new requirements documents, the FAR5 cites the following order of precedence:

1.  Documents mandated for use by law

2.  Performance-oriented documents (e.g., performance work statement, statement of objectives)

3.  Detailed, design-oriented documents

4.  Standards, specifications, and related publications issued by the government outside the Defense or federal series for nonrepetitive acquisition of items.