Acquisition Planning James H. Vricos, Professor LEG505 – Government Contract Law November 19, 2012

* Assignment 3: Acquisition Planning
Due Week 6 and worth 200 points

Civilian agencies obligated over $135 billion in fiscal year 2010 for services--80 percent of total civilian spending on contracts. Services acquisitions have suffered from inadequate planning, which puts budget, schedule, and quality at risk. For this assignment, review GAO Report titled, “Acquisition Planning: Opportunities to Build Strong Foundations for Better Services Contracts,” GAO-11-672, August 9, 2011, located at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11672.pdf.

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
1.Compare and contrast how the listed agencies, such as the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have carried out acquisition planning.

The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have set requirements for acquisition planning to balance any oversights with time and administrative burden. These agencies require written acquisition plans that are closely aligned with the elements defined by the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR). The establish guidelines state that cost estimates and requirements documents must be prepared during the acquisition planning. The guidelines for DHS and NASA include considerations of lessons from the experiences of previous contracts as part of the acquisition planning. Additionally, these agencies have set different requirements for who must review and approve acquisition planning documents, to avoid oversights (GAO, 2011) 2.