Pivotal Insight E-mail Alerts from our Newsletter:

• Acquisition Management
  
  Fiscal Year 2004 Small Business Prime Contracting. Small businesses were awarded a record $69.23 billion in prime contracts in fiscal year 2004, as the federal government exceeded its statutory goal for small business prime contracting. At the same time, however, prime contract awards to small businesses declined as a percentage of overall prime contract dollars awarded from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2004. This article provides an analysis of fiscal year 2004 small business prime contracting.
  
  Share in Savings: Activity, but Limited Results. Despite various activities aimed at getting share in savings (SIS) contracting off the ground, not a single SIS information technology contract has been awarded in the more than two years since the enactment of the E-Government Act. This article looks at the activities to date, as well as impediments to its real implementation.
  
  Acquisition Systems Improvement Act (ASIA). Rep. Tom Davis' (R-VA) re-introduced H.R. 2067, the Acquisition System Improvement Act (ASIA), addresses a government - industry exchange program, share-in-savings amendments, agency acquisition protests, and use of commercially available online services for federal procurement of commercial items.
  
  Contractor Past Performance Information (PPI) in Source Selection. Private sector best practices in the use of past performance information (PPI) could benefit the public sector acquisition process, but changes would have to be made for the government to reap those benefits. This article looks at private-sector best practices and addresses necessary changes to implement those practices in the public sector.
  
  Ongoing concerns plague share in savings contracting. Share in savings contracting (SIS) continues to generate controversy in the federal procurement ecosystem, including concerns about agencies’ abilities to measure value, links between savings and the SIS contracting vehicle, and lessened ability for agency employees to compete with outside contractors.
  
  Small business set-asides: what, how, when. It is the declared policy of Congress that the government should award business to small companies. But guidelines, requirements, and definitions are murky at best, making hard work for both government employees and small business leaders.
  
  Procurement Outsourcing: the Core Competencies Question. There is rapid movement in the private sector toward procurement outsourcing. Why and when would formalized procurement outsourcing make sense for government, and what could an agency expect once its procurement function was outsourced?
  
  DOD and the GSA Schedules: Mixed Messages, No Clear Trend. The jury is still out-and probably will be for some time-on DOD's use of GSA multiple award schedules. Get a fix on recent trends and find out what's limiting growth in their use.
  
  Learn about recent updates in share-in-savings Since our September 2004 article, there have been several interesting actions in share-in-savings.
  
  Spend Analysis. Difficulties reducing procurement spend can often be traced to a lack of visibility across suppliers and commodities.
  
  The Catch-22 of Clinger-Cohen. If the agency waits until it purchases COTS software to do BPR, it is not in compliance with Clinger-Cohen. If it complies and performs the BPR before the software purchase, it will almost certainly have to do another BPR once the software arrives. What’s an agency to do?
  
  The Risks and Rewards of Share-in-Savings. Share-in-savings (SIS) is a concept that has become increasingly popular over the past few years because it appears to offer a win/win solution to a recognized public sector acquisition and funding problem.
  
  ASIA - The Next Frontier in Acquisition Reform. This Acquisition System Improvement Act (ASIA) is part of a trend changing they way government approaches acquisition, requiring new skills and perspectives both on both sides of the fence.
  
  The Growing Need for Shared Benefits Acquisition Government executives are seeking innovative ways to work with contractors and looking for vendors willing to share in both the risks and the rewards of creative contracting arrangements. Here is what they need to make it work.
  
  Acquisition Stability: Why Government Should Ensure the Profitability of its Contractors. The recent trials and tribulations of EDS on the NMCI contract raise questions about the federal government's role in ensuring the success of contractors on large engagements.
  
  
• Human Resources
  
  Using Human Capital to Drive Organizational Change. The IBM Center for the Business of Government released a study in the summer of 2005 on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) use of human capital to drive organizational transformation. This article looks at the lessons learned by the GAO, as well as best practices employed by other organizations in the use of human capital to drive organizational change.
  
  Improving, Not Managing, Poor Performance. The GAO's recent report on managing poor performers addresses two key issues: attempting to avoid poor performance altogether and quickly removing the poor performer from the organization. But, there is another, equally important component: helping the poor performer to improve. This article addresses all three components.
  
  Leapfrogging the Private Sector in IT Workforce Planning. The Chief Information Officers' Council (CIOC) Information Technology (IT) Workforce Capability Assessment Survey (2004), coupled with recent statistics from private sector IT and general workforce studies, provides useful information about workforce trends as well as an opportunity for the federal government to leapfrog the private sector in implementing workforce planning and gap solutions.
  
  Results of the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey: Negative Responses Can Be Instructive. While the 2004 survey showed many performance gains over the 2002 survey, the information is best used as a tool to understand areas that require attention; human capital managers and government leaders would be well served by digging into the details of employee dissatisfaction as outlined in this article. (Also includes access to survey data reformatted into easily manipulated excel files.)
  
  Highlights of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) proposed rule. The February 2005 NSPS proposed rule provides food for thought for all federal government human capital managers. This article highlights the relevant issues to consider.
  
  New human capital metrics that drive strategy. A January 2005 Conference Board report offers insights into new human capital metrics-beyond traditional efficiency measures-that organizations can use to make meaningful human resource decisions and drive strategy.
  
  GAO Response the DHS Human Capital Plan. Given the high profile of DHS’ human capital changes and their potential impact on other agencies, staying abreast of such commentary is essential for human capital leaders across the government. The GAO’s comments offer food-for-thought for anyone seeking to understand the potential future of government human capital management.
  
  The keys to recruiting success. There are many recruiting options available to anyone trying to fill a position, but how does a recruiter deploy the best option against a current opening-which works best in what situation?
  
  Effective ongoing recruiting requires using several strategies. The federal government is at a (real or perceived) disadvantage in recruiting candidates. Effective recruiting involves employing multiple strategies simultaneously.
  
  A76 is a call to action for HR. Efforts to improve the efficiency of government will continue at their current pace if not increase. The HR expert is the person best suited to support both the agency and the employees in this kind of highly stressful situation.
  
  Approaching the Retirement Cliff. With a large number of federal government workers eligible for retirement in the coming years, what do hiring and human capital managers do to attract recent college graduates?
  
  Hot Topics In Government HR ... Moving From 'So What' to Solutions Federal human resources executives are faced with all same challenges as their private-sector counterparts--and more. This article looks at the special challenges Federal human resources executives face and details future research Pivotal Insight will conduct to enable them to manage those challenges effectively.
  
  How Government HR Executives Can Conquer Mission Flux For Federal agencies and their leadership, mission flux is a serious condition, which places a significant burden on human resource organizations to find and develop the staff needed to respond to flux, often with highly constrained resources themselves. This article details how federal organizations can deal with unexpected and unplanned for mandates that require changes to the workforce's size, skills, systems, processes and programs.
  
  Now Strategy Hits the Wallet The new SES Performance-based Pay System, effective on January 11, 2004, gives Federal departments and agencies a rare opportunity, and a powerful tool to transform their cultures, linking executive compensation to the achievement of mission and organizational results.
  
  
• Program Management
  
  Government Software Project Management 101. Software project management in the federal government is one of the hardest and most demanding jobs in the information technology (IT) industry. Best practices gleaned from both experience and training can help any organization setting out to establish, or correct, its project management system.
  
  Reducing the Cone of Uncertainty. Most federal IT leaders agree that IT project performance is not as good as it should be, despite gains in recent years. This article looks at how project planning, rather than project management, contributes to this limited success.
  
  The Importance of Enterprise Architecture: A Case Study. Done right, enterprise architecture provides a blueprint of how an organization does business and how IT systems enable the business, marrying the business to the systems and allowing leaders to view the organization from the 10,000-foot level down to the 10-foot level.
  
  The IT Build Versus Buy Dilemma: COTS, GOTS, and MOTS (Oh My!). With commercial, government and modifiable off-the-shelf solutions available to IT professionals, how do you make the decisions to which system is right for your agency? This article offers some insights into how to make this difficult decision.
  
  Bringing structure to unstructured data. In order to gain the greatest benefit from collected data, data managers must bring some kind of structure to unstructured data. This article offers insights from two organizations that have attempted to structure their unstructured data.
  
  Taming unstructured data. The vast majority of most organizations' operational data resides in difficult-to-access, unstructured formats, such as e-mail, word processing documents, and images. Recent trends in enterprise content management are helping make those date more useable.
  
  Program Management Versus Project Management. Both program management and project management have their place in organizational operations. Understanding the differences, and intersections, is essential to using each effectively.
  
  A checklist for PM coaching. As turnover in the program management ranks accelerates, organizations should consider tapping into senior PM leaders to ensure newer program managers get hands-on practical support as they take on new challenges.
  
  OMB focuses on customer results from e-gov initiatives. In the coming months, presidential e-government initiatives will change from the development and implementation phase to the service offerings phase, with increased agency adoption and customer utilization as the primary measures of success..
  
  When Critical Path is not so critical. Although Critical Path is widely used, why are many projects late, over budget, and dissatisfying customers? There are several reasons why CPM fails so often.
  
  Managing Consultants. If the reason for hiring the consultant is clear and understood by both parties and the right consultant was selected, managing that resource should be fairly straight-forward.
  
  Which consultant to choose? When selecting a consultant, the most important thing Government executives need to consider is the ability of the consulting firm to deliver results. However, don’t underestimate the importance of relationships since most people prefer working with people they like.
  
  When to Hire a Consultant. It is important for the customer to understand the reasons for hiring a consultant, to effectively communicate those reasons to avoid confusion over roles and responsibilities, and to obtain the right services at the right price.
  
  Are you prepared for a Continuing Resolution? Given that we are in a Presidential election year, a continuing resolution (CR) seems likely for many government agencies. Here is how to prepare.
  
  The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Projects Program Managers often underestimate the impact of the cost estimate. Here are 7 best practices to ensure your project has a sound foundation for success.
  
  Questions to ask yourself before pursuing an SEI appraisal The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie-Mellon University is the author of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a widely used and respected method for assessing the quality and maturity of an organization's processes. Most organizations that reach a higher CMMI level spend substantial time and resources in the effort. Any organization that is thinking about doing a CMMI appraisal should begin by answering a few questions.
  
  Three Pitfalls to Avoid with Earned Value Management (EVM) EVM is a powerful program management tool and, when used correctly, provides tremendous insight into program status and alerts managers of potential risks. However, there are some common EVM pitfalls that all PMs should avoid.



• Strategic Management
  
  The Telework Conundrum. Catastrophic events such as terrorist events and catastrophic natural disasters highlight the need to increase telework efforts to mitigate adversity. But, after 15 years of effort, telework still is not common in the federal government. This article looks at roadblocks to successful implementation, benefits of telework, and best practices in executing.
  
  Lean Six Sigma and Business Transformation in Government. Lean Six Sigma (LSS), hailed in the private sector, is becoming increasingly popular in many government organizations for its ability to help agencies improve business operations and comply with the President's Management Agenda (PMA).
  
  The Economic Impact of BRAC 2005. The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 Commission recommendations include 33 major base closures, 29 major base realignments, and 775 minor closures and realignments, the most sweeping changes of any of the previous base closures. Pivotal Insight provides an analysis of the economic impact in the most affected states.
  
  Recognizing the Human Side of Business Process Management. While the benefits of a strong business process management (BPM) program are widely recognized, the additional benefits of integrating the human factor in the business processes are still largely untapped. By taking this vital step in the business management process, organizations can realize labor and dollar savings as well as quality improvements.
  
  Gearing up for 2005 base closures. The 2005 Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission has been sworn in, setting off the usual controversy as it gears up for its next round of base closures
  
  FY06 PART: Agency Scoring Trends With three years of data available, PART scores are demonstrating some intriguing, and educational, themes, variations, and discrepancies.
  
  FY06 Budget PART Assessments. OMB's FY06 budget demonstrate real progress in the PART initiative, but it still faces challenges.
  
  IT Chargeback: Is It Worth the Effort? With federal IT budgets under increasing downward pressure, CIOs are drawn to the concept of cost chargeback. How do these programs work, and are they effective?
  
  Welcome to Washington: A Newcomer's Guide. A completed presidential election, even one in which the incumbent remains in power, spawns widespread changes among senior staff. For most senior executives new to the government, managing in this environment can be quite challenging. Our quick guide can help ease the transition.
  
  Implications of President Bush's Reelection. The electoral cycle always has implications for the government workforce, even when the incumbent is reelected.
  
  Performance Scorecards. Although their quality has improved dramatically over the past several years, there are still areas for improvement.
  
  Offshoring of Government Dollars. “Offshoring” is what happens when jobs are moved outside of our country to less expensive sites overseas. Are substantial federal government services being performed outside of the U.S.?
  
  New OMB guidelines. Agencies must demonstrate that they are using “earned value management” (EVM) to justify and track technology investments.
  
  IT Strategic Investments is not an Oxymoron Many CIOs are faced with the problem of analyzing and prioritizing the IT capital investments, not to mention justifying them to OMB. Here is a guide to help.
  
  Taxpayer ROI - The Utopia of Government. The government should strive to achieve outcomes that represent the best value for the taxpayer. This article examines what that means for government executives today.
  
  The System Integrator: Government or Contractor? Who is in the best position to be the system integrator on a large, complex project? Here is how to decide.
  
  The Skinny on PART The background of OMB's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), how PART relates to GPRA and other efforts, and what agencies can expect moving forward. Also discusses best practices for Agencies completing PART Assessments.
  
  What You Need to Know Before Hiring A Contractor The relationship between a customer and a consultant can be very beneficial or can be fraught with peril and animosity. To avoid problems down the road ensure you answer the following questions before hiring a consultant.