What's the best acquisition strategy for your program? The answer depends on many factors, such as the objectives, scope, complexity, timing, budget, and risks associated with the requirement, socio-economic goals and other regulatory requirements, and the solutions available and competition in the marketplace. No single acquisition strategy is perfect for every situation. The ideal strategy centers on satisfying the mission need with an approach that achieves maximum benefit, a fair and reasonable price, and minimum risk.

The development of acquisition strategies logically flows from the capital planning and budgeting process that integrates agency budgets and performance. Your agency's strategic plan, annual performance plan, and capital asset plans and business cases all have a bearing on the acquisition strategy for your program. Specific program procurement initiatives usually originate in approved agency work plans and annual spending plans. You need to leverage all of these sources of information as you consider the acquisition strategy for your program. Acquisition strategies used for comparable programs in other organizations also can provide valuable insight and input to the development of your strategy by helping to identify potential benefits and pitfalls.

Establishing an acquisition strategy panel is an effective way to examine acquisition alternatives and approaches for your program. For large, complex requirements, an integrated product or solution team consisting of key members of the program and acquisition groups often works best. Members of the team should have expertise in technical planning and needs analysis, regulatory requirements, budget and finance, economic and market analysis, and cost/price analysis.

The team should address technical, business, management, and other significant issues in selecting an approach that minimizes risk, while achieving a cost-effective, streamlined, and competitive approach to the acquisition. Some factors to consider include:

• Targeting small and other socio-economically disadvantaged businesses where practical.
• Analyzing the viability of contract consolidation (and preparing justification if needed).
• Determining the scope of and methods to leverage the competitive marketplace.
• Becoming knowledgeable about the market sectors that can provide solutions.
• Thoroughly documenting the rationale for any sole source strategy.
• Giving preference to multiple awards, to the extent practicable.

An essential part of implementing your acquisition strategy is developing an integrated schedule to guide the program through execution.