Overview
This section prescribes the fundamental steps for conducting acquisition planning, emphasizing early involvement of a cross-functional team and continuous plan maintenance to ensure procurement objectives are met. It establishes the mandatory coordination requirements between planners, contracting officers, and small business specialists to maximize competition and regulatory compliance.
Key Rules
- Timing and Teamwork: Planning must begin as soon as a need is identified and involves a multidisciplinary team (contracting, small business, fiscal, legal, and technical personnel).
- Plan Maintenance: Planners must review and, if necessary, revise acquisition plans at key milestones, whenever significant changes occur, and at least annually.
- Avoidance of Urgency: Requirements and logistics personnel are directed to avoid unrealistic delivery schedules or urgent requirements that restrict competition and increase costs.
- Mandatory Concurrence: The planner must coordinate with and obtain concurrence from the Contracting Officer; if the strategy uses restricted competition, coordination with the Advocate for Competition is required.
- Small Business Oversight: Coordination with a small business specialist is mandatory for strategies involving "substantial bundling" to ensure such consolidation is necessary and justified.
- Early COR Designation: A Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) must be nominated and designated as early as practicable in the acquisition process.
Practical Implications
- Reduction of "Fire Drills": By requiring planning well in advance of the fiscal year of award, the regulation seeks to prevent the year-end surge of non-competitive, high-priced contracts.
- Stakeholder Integration: Successful procurement requires technical and requirements personnel to collaborate with the "Acquisition Team" early, ensuring that legal, financial, and small business constraints are addressed during strategy development rather than at the point of award.