Source Selection Definitions Flashcards
Best Value
means the expected outcome of an acquisition that, in the Government’s estimation provides the greatest overall benefit in response to the requirement. See FAR 2.101
Clarifications
are limited exchanges between the Government and offerors that may occur when award without discussion is contemplated. See FAR 15.306(a)(1).
Communications
are exchanges, between the Government and offerors, after receipt of proposals, leading to establishment of the competitive range. See FAR 15.306(b).
Deficiency
s a material failure of a proposal to meet a Government requirement or a combination of significant weaknesses in a proposal that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance to an unacceptable level. See FAR 15.001.
Discussions
are exchanges (i.e., negotiations) in a competitive environment that are undertaken with the intent of allowing the offeror to revise its proposal. Discussions take place after establishment of the competitive range. See FAR 15.306(d).
Evaluation Notices
is the PCO’s written notification to the offeror for purposes of clarifications, communications, or discussions.
LPTA
is a process used in competitive negotiated contracting where the best value is expected to result from selection of the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest evaluated price. See FAR 15.101-2.
Performace Confidence Assessment
is an evaluation of the likelihood (or Government’s
confidence) that the offeror will successfully perform the solicitation’s requirements; the
evaluation is based upon past performance information.
Recency
as it pertains to past performance information, is a measure of the time that has elapsed since the past performance reference occurred. Recency is generally expressed as a time period during which past performance references are considered relevant.
Relevancy
as it pertains to past performance information, is a measure of the extent of similarity between the service/support effort, complexity, dollar value, contract type, and
subcontract/teaming or other comparable attributes of past performance examples and the
solicitation requirements; and a measure of the likelihood that the past performance is an
indicator of future performance.
Requirements Documents
are all aspects of the RFP that convey the needs of the Government to offerors, including the SOO, SOW, PWS, technical requirement documents, and system
requirement documents.
Requirements Owner
is the entity (for example, a program management office or other
organizational entity) responsible for providing requirements documents within the RFP that
communicate those requirements to offerors.
Risk
as it pertains to source selection, is the potential for unsuccessful contract performance.
The consideration of risk assesses the degree to which an offeror’s proposed approach to
achieving the technical factor or subfactor may involve risk of disruption of schedule, increased
cost or degradation of performance, the need for increased Government oversight, and the
likelihood of unsuccessful contract performance. (For firm-fixed-price contracts, the reference
to increased cost may be removed from the risk definition.)
Significant Weakness
in the proposal is a flaw that appreciably increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance. See FAR 15.001.
Source Selection Advisory Council
is a group of individuals, appointed as needed by the
SSA, that provides counsel during the source selection process, prepares the comparative
analysis of the SSEB’s final evaluation results, and makes an award recommendation to the SSA.
Source Selection Authority
is the official designated to make the source selection
decision.
Souce Selection Decision Document
is the document that reflects the SSA’s
independent, integrated, comparative assessment and decision.
Source Selection Evaluation Board
is a group of individuals representing the various
functional disciplines relevant to the acquisition that is responsible for evaluating proposals
against the solicitation criteria.
Source Selection Plan
is a plan that describes how the source selection will be organized,
how proposals will be evaluated and analyzed, and how source(s) will be selected.
Source Selection Team
is a team that is tailored to the specific acquisition, tasked with
carrying out a source selection. Composition of the team generally consists of the SSA, PCO (if
different from the SSA), SSAC, SSEB, Advisors, Cost or Price Experts, Legal Counsel, Small
Business Professionals/Specialists, and other subject-matter experts.
Strength
is an aspect of an offeror’s proposal that has merit or exceeds specified performance or capability requirements in a way that will be advantageous to the Government during contract performance.
Subjective Tradeoff
s a source selection process used when it may be in the best interest of the
Government to consider award to other than the lowest priced offeror or other than the highest technically rated offeror but it is not possible to place a quantifiable value on proposed
performance or capabilities above threshold (minimum) requirements (see paragraph 1.3.1.3).
Value Adjusted Total Evaluated Price
is a tradeoff source selection process where the
offeror’s total proposed price may be adjusted based on the “value” placed on better performance as identified in the solicitation. The SSA must then determine if a higher rated technical offer is “worth” the additional cost to the Government.
Weakness
means a flaw in the proposal that increases the risk of unsuccessful contract
performance. See FAR 15.001.
