Statement of objectives

Last updated

The statement of objectives is one part of a request for proposal from the U.S. Government. The statement of objectives is an alternative to a government prepared statement of work (SOW). [1] A SOO provides the government's overall objectives and the offeror's required support to achieve the contractual objectives. Offerors use the SOO as a basis for preparing a SOW which is then included as an integral part of the proposal which the government evaluates during the source selection.

A statement of work (SoW) is a document routinely employed in the field of project management. It is referred to as the narrative description of a project's work requirement. It defines project-specific activities, deliverables and timelines for a vendor providing services to the client. The SOW typically also includes detailed requirements and pricing, with standard regulatory and governance terms and conditions. It is often an important accompaniment to a master service agreement or request for proposal (RFP).

This concept and approach was introduced with the 1996 Preparation of Statement of Work Handbook [2] to support the underlying acquisition reform goals of "better, faster, cheaper" by allowing offerors maximum freedom to achieving the government objectives. This can be a means of furthering Acquisition Reform Strategies, such as Use of Performance Based Requirements, Use of Commercial Practices, and Reduced Cost of Ownership.

The SOO should be compatible with the needs statement, operational requirements, and the preliminary contract work breakdown structure. [3]

Related Research Articles

Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Systems engineering interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design and manage complex systems over their life cycles

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to organize this body of knowledge. The individual outcome of such efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of components that work in synergy to collectively perform a useful function.

Procurement is the process of finding and agreeing to terms, and acquiring goods, services, or works from an external source, often via a tendering or competitive bidding process.

V-Model

The V-model is a graphical representation of a systems development lifecycle. It is used to produce rigorous development lifecycle models and project management models. The V-model falls into three broad categories, the German V-Modell, a general testing model and the US government standard.

Philippine Navy naval warfare branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines

The Philippine Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,000 active service personnel, including the 7,500-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It shares the responsibility of patrolling the maritime borders with the Philippine Coast Guard, a formerly attached unit which became a separate maritime law enforcement agency in 1998.

A United States defense standard, often called a military standard, "MIL-STD", "MIL-SPEC", or (informally) "MilSpecs", is used to help achieve standardization objectives by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Integrated logistic support (ILS) is an integrated and iterative process for developing materiel and a support strategy that optimizes functional support, leverages existing resources, and guides the system engineering process to quantify and lower life cycle cost and decrease the logistics footprint, making the system easier to support. Although originally developed for military purposes, it is also widely used in commercial product support or customer service organisations.

In United States military contracts, the contract data requirements list is a list of authorized data requirements for a specific procurement that forms a part of the contract.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the principal set of rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulations System regarding government procurement in the United States, and is codified at Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 48 C.F.R. 1.

Government procurement in the United States is the process by which the federal, state and local government bodies in the United States acquire goods, services, and interests in real property. In FY 2016 alone, the US Federal Government spent $461B on contracts. Contracts for federal government procurement usually involve appropriated funds spent on supplies, services, and interests in real property by and for the use of the Federal Government through purchase or lease, whether the supplies, services, or interests are already in existence or must be created, developed, demonstrated, and evaluated. See 48 C.F.R. § 2.101. Federal Government contracting has the same legal elements as contracting between private parties: a lawful purpose, competent contracting parties, an offer, an acceptance that complies with the terms of the offer, mutuality of obligation, and consideration. However, federal procurement is much more heavily regulated, subject to volumes of statutes dealing with Federal contracts and the Federal contracting process, mostly in Titles 10, 31, 40, and 41 of the United States Code.

Internal audit An audit of accounting for audiences within a firm

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value to and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. Internal auditing achieves this by providing insight and recommendations based on analyses and assessments of data and business processes. With commitment to integrity and accountability, internal auditing provides value to governing bodies and senior management as an objective source of independent advice. Professionals called internal auditors are employed by organizations to perform the internal auditing activity.

The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS), is the formal United States Department of Defense (DoD) process which defines acquisition requirements and evaluation criteria for future defense programs. JCIDS was created to replace the previous service-specific requirements generation system that allowed redundancies in capabilities and failed to meet the combined needs of all US military services. In order to correct these problems, JCIDS is intended to guide the development of requirements for future acquisition systems to reflect the needs of all four services by focusing the requirements generation process on needed capabilities as requested or defined by one of the US combatant commanders. In an ideal implementation of the JCIDS process, regional and functional combatant commanders give early and continuous feedback into the acquisition and sustainment processes to ensure their current and evolving requirements are known and met.

The Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) is the official Software Engineering Institute (SEI) method to provide benchmark-quality ratings relative to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) models. SCAMPI appraisals are used to identify strengths and weaknesses of current processes, reveal development/acquisition risks, and determine capability and maturity level ratings. They are mostly used either as part of a process improvement program or for rating prospective suppliers. The method defines the appraisal process as consisting of preparation; on-site activities; preliminary observations, findings, and ratings; final reporting; and follow-on activities.

Integrated master plan

In the United States Department of Defense, the Integrated Master Plan (IMP) and the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) are important program management tools that provide significant assistance in the planning and scheduling of work efforts in large and complex materiel acquisitions. The IMP is an event-driven plan that documents the significant accomplishments necessary to complete the work and ties each accomplishment to a key program event. The IMP is expanded to a time-based IMS to produce a networked and multi-layered schedule showing all detailed tasks required to accomplish the work effort contained in the IMP. The IMS flows directly from the IMP and supplements it with additional levels of detail——both then form the foundations to implement an Earned Value Management System.

A concept of operations is a document describing the characteristics of a proposed system from the viewpoint of an individual who will use that system such as a business requirements specification or stakeholder requirements specification (StRS). It is used to communicate the quantitative and qualitative system characteristics to all stakeholders. CONOPS are widely used in the military, governmental services and other fields.

William J. Lynn III American Defense Department official; lobbyist

William J. Lynn III is a former United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. Before that he was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and a lobbyist for Raytheon.

In the United States military integrated acquisition lifecycle the Technical section has multiple acquisition "Technical Reviews". Technical reviews and audits assist the acquisition and the number and types are tailored to the acquisition. Overall guidance flows from the Defense Acquisition Guidebook chapter 4, with local details further defined by the review organizations. Typical topics examined include adequacy of program/contract metrics, proper staffing, risks, budget, and schedule.

The Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) in the United States is a requirement of military acquisition policy, as controlled by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It ensures that at least three feasible alternatives are analyzed prior to making costly investment decisions. The AoA establishes and benchmarks metrics for Cost, Schedule, Performance (CSP) and Risk (CSPR) depending on military "needs" derived from the Joint Capabilities Integration Development System process. It moves away from employing a single acquisition source to the exploration of multiple alternatives so agencies have a basis for funding the best possible projects in a rational, defensible manner considering risk and uncertainty.

A United States data item description (DID) is a completed document defining the data deliverables required of a United States Department of Defense contractor. A DID specifically defines the data content, format, and intended use of the data with a primary objective of achieving standardization objectives by the U.S. Department of Defense. The content and format requirements for DIDs are defined within MIL-STD-963C, Data Item Descriptions (2014).

References

  1. ↑ "Systems Engineering Fundamentals, 19-A Statement of Objectives (SOO)" (PDF). Defense Acquisition University Press. 2001-01-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-02-11. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  2. ↑ "MIL-HDBK-245D Handbook for Preparation of Statement of Work (SOW), para 1.3" (PDF). Department of Defense. 1996-04-03. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
  3. ↑ "Guidance for the Development of Statement of Objectives (SOO)". Department of Defense. Retrieved 2013-04-09.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.