PREFACE
This book is about past performance. It seeks to provide a well-rounded perspective that includes both industry and government points of view. As such, we intend it to inform, advise, and challenge those of us doing business with the government as well as those doing business for the government. We hope it will help aspiring government contractors, government procurement officials, and program managers improve company and contractor performance as well as the management and use of past performance information on both sides of the contracting process. We all share the same goal—to bring awareness of the significance of firm past performance and get it to speak volumes about a particular bidder’s ability to deliver the best results—cost-effectively and at the lowest risk to the government.
In spite of almost two decades of spotlight focus by the federal government on past performance as a means to distinguish among bidders, both the collection and use of past performance information remain disjointed, siloed, and not well understood by either government or industry. There has been practically zero literature of any significance published on the subject that is geared toward helping contractors, whose livelihoods depend on how their past performance information is collected and used by the government. Additionally, there is little in the literature that presents balanced government and industry viewpoints on the subject. Finally, there is no voice in the conversation that succinctly presents the universe of uses and issues associated with past performance. The few texts available essentially take the construct of the current past performance information system as a given and provide little analysis, evaluation, or examination of this system.
Our goal with this book is to fully examine past performance as a business tool, to increase awareness, improve understanding, and promote the adoption and use of smart business practices on both the buyer and seller sides of the past performance equation. Our decades of experience in both industry and government have included dealing with every aspect of firm past performance, ranging from deciding when and how to collect past performance information to evaluating responses to past performance questionnaires, assembling industry teams based on past performance, crafting hundreds of proposals and navigating contractor performance assessment report completion with government clients.
Our intent is to convey three overarching themes:
1. Well-informed buyers and sellers seek to understand what their counterparts on the other side of the buy/sell process go through. Hence, informed buyers and sellers temper their actions and activities based on this knowledge. They gather as much knowledge as possible about the impact of their actions on the other party, on the acquisition, and on the outcomes sought.
2. The highest and best use of past performance information and other customer satisfaction inputs is to impact execution and, therefore, actually improve performance and operations.
3. Both buyers and sellers want to know each other’s identity. They both want to know and understand the other. Who organizations are is perpetuated and understood through stories. Past performance information reported by the buyer and past performance write-ups included by the seller with proposals are these stories and have common features and scripts.
Readers of this book will find immediately useful tools for assessing a firm’s past performance, for implementing active management of past performance information in both government agencies and private firms, and for facilitating discussion. Readers will also benefit from a holistic look at past performance from all angles and perspectives. This book “brings it all together” on the subject of past performance and is a ready reference source for buyers, sellers, policymakers, contracting professionals, service providers, and others.
This book is intended to be read from beginning to end. However, a complete index and detailed table of contents are provided, and much material is provided in a manner such that sections or specific exhibits can be pulled out for direct use or reference. The discussion is presented in eight chapters, starting with the context of past performance. Exhibits are included after several chapters to provide additional content, examples, and other supporting materials. Acronyms used are provided along with definitions used in the book and a complete index.
Understanding the core components of past performance and how past performance information is used is essential for agencies, contractors, and bidders. It is frequently a central element of the evaluation process used by nearly all government agencies when they determine which proposals will be awarded contracts. Chapter 1 defines past performance and discusses the history of the use of past performance by the U.S. government. It provides an overview of the collection, evaluation, and use of past performance information.
Mastery of the buyer’s process for obtaining, evaluating, and using past performance information is especially critical for sellers as they seek to showcase themselves in all potential repositories the buyer might turn to for information about their past performance. Choices made during the collection and evaluation of past performance information are critical to contract award decisions. Chapter 2 is in some ways the heart of the book and presents the cycle of past performance from both the buyer’s and the seller’s perspectives. For the buyer, the cycle includes evaluation, storage/retention, and use. For the seller, the cycle includes collection, interpretation, storage/retention, and use.
Contractors need to adopt a methodical approach to the past performance write-up section of their proposals that helps them develop a compelling story about their experience and qualifications to perform at a high level for a project on which they plan to bid. Chapter 3 approaches the presentation of past performance as a form of storytelling and takes the reader through four levels of presenting past performance information: giving just the facts, providing context, providing impact, and increasing understanding. Sample write-ups are included for each level.
As should be clear, Chapter 3 is primarily for sellers or presenters of past performance write-ups in proposals. What is not so obvious is that it is also written for buyers: Truly informed buyers understand what their counterparts on the other side of the buy/sell go through. In situations such as those found in the government contracting market, where the buyer dictates the form and content of the information it receives, it is not always easy as a buyer to completely understand and foresee the implications of decisions and instructions.
Obtaining maximum value from past performance information repositories requires developing, implementing, and executing policies, procedures, architectures, and technologies that take security, the user experience, data as an asset, and openness into consideration. Chapter 4 is about what past performance information gets stored, who stores it, how they store it, how it is accessed, and how it is managed in the aggregate. Three categories of repositories are discussed: government repositories, privately maintained repositories containing information about multiple sellers that provide fee-based access, and repositories maintained by a firm for use by the firm.
Past performance information is evaluated by the government as part of responsibility determinations, as part of source selection evaluations, and as a part of monitoring contractor performance. Although the focus here is on the federal government as the evaluator of a firm’s past performance, evaluations also impact how a company will be considered when evaluated by potential business partners, financial institutions, employees, and investors as they make decisions, including contract award decisions. Chapter 5 provides a detailed discussion of buyer evaluations of performance in responsibility determinations, as a part of monitoring contractor performance, and during source selection.
Chapter 5 also presents a unique and comprehensive past performance ranking tool that can be pulled out and put to immediate use in a firm or used to guide a discussion in a government office. The chapter provides the complete, as issued, past performance instructions to offerors and an evaluation scheme issued by a government agency and used to conduct a procurement in 2013. A critique of this solicitation segment highlights the impact on both the buyer and the seller from the use of this scheme.
A strong grasp of how the government views disputes and protests over past performance issues is critical for any firm that pursues a challenge to a contract decision based on its past performance. Chapter 6 discusses venues, the timing of disputes, and basis of appeals. Three case studies redacted from Government Accountability Office (GAO) decisions are provided. Discussion questions are provided with the cases as well as possible answers to the discussion questions. These cases have been used a number of times in courses taught by the authors and have proven to be an effective tool to generate meaningful classroom interaction and learning experiences.
The collection and use of past performance information by the government continue to be refined and improved. Success with past performance requires staying abreast of these changes and understanding their causes and directions. Chapter 7 illuminates the changing face of past performance: During the time this book was written, there has been much focus, attention, and action on past performance regulation, policy, and use by the government. The Introduction looked back to the origination of the use of past performance by the government as a buyer and its early history. Chapter 7 picks up this thread and discusses how and why the use of past performance is changing. Also included in this chapter is an examination of what can be learned from interest groups, industry associations, commercial buyers, and others.
Widespread adoption of seller performance feedback measures as an important element of sales transactions is occurring across many industries and markets. The expectations established with buyers and sellers based on this adoption will affect the collection, evaluation, and use of past performance information in the government contracting market. Chapter 8 examines how the use of past performance may look in the future by discussing ten trends most likely to be witnessed in the relatively near future.
—Jim Hiles
Jim@winningwithpastperformance.com
—Earl Wells
Earl@winningwithpastperformance.com