Familiar Tune

I read today that the Veterans Administration is planning a Wide-ranging IT Services Contract. The article seems very familiar, in fact, it sounds exactly like the HITS contract that was awarded to support HUD. I don't know if people from VA visit my blog, but there are a few lessons that can be learned from that experience. I think nobody will argue that the final result was probably better than the status quo, but it was more painful than it should have been.

Numero Uno, all of your contract documentation must be perfect. This means that the solicitation, the SOW, the technical evaluation and best value analysis must be perfect. This is the type of contract that will be protested if it is not perfect, so take the time to be perfect and avoid those issue.

2. Make sure you have really strong transition in and transition out clauses. As it was written I'm not seeing discrete sections for in and out work. This is kind of a big deal because they are looking at a base of 5 years and the option of 2 more. The issue that I would help them avoid is what happens after that 7 years. You don't want to be in a situation in which you are stuck with the incumbent, because, trust me, they will try to lock you in. You can avoid this pain by planning for their obsolescence now.

3. Something that makes me nervous is integration. I can't tell whether they are looking to make a single award to just one vendor or if they are looking to make more than one award. I anticipate that because if the security work it is probably two, but it could be more than that. Whenever you are looking at a multiple contractor situation you need to identify who has the responsibility to make it all work together.

4. Where is the Architecture work? Maybe VA doesn't need support services for their architecture, but as I look through the PWS I'm missing the architecture support. It could very easily be related to #3 above, Integration support.

5. They cite CMM level 2, but don't seem to be requiring it or using it as a discriminator. I would recommend prescribing this as a minimum standard.

While I'm identifying a lot of thing that can be improved, I think this is a good opportunity for the VA. I just hope they talk to some people from HUD to make the transition less painful.