Acquisition

Kelman: The Mayflower revisited

Anybody remember the Mayflower Compact?

Digital Government

Kelman: Perfecting performance

When I came to work for the government about a decade ago, the Air Force was experiencing a big problem with a large information technology hardware contract called Desktop II.

Acquisition

Steve Kelman: Competitive procurement

Consider contests as a procurement technique.

Acquisition

Kelman: Time to share savings

Columnist Steve Kelman says share-in-savings contracts can promote better performance.

People

Reforms are just a start

Procurement reform over the past 15 years have had an impact on government IT, but more needs to be done

People

A milestone for measuring results

Results should be seen as a tool for improvement so people will embrace it.

Acquisition

First, do no harm

The year 2004 maybe hot for procurement issues ? too hot.

Digital Government

MIA on procurement

In a little squib announcing the nomination of David Safavian as new administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Washington Post headlined that the new head of the Bush administration's competitive sourcing initiative had been named.

Digital Government

The perfect storm?

At this year's Executive Leadership Conference last month, the air was filled with the spirit of government/industry collaboration.

Acquisition

Structured empowerment

The loosening of the tyranny of rules that has occurred in the procurement system during the past decade has involved a trade-off.

Digital Government

Job site gets it right

OPM's USAJobs relaunch can teach us a lot about how to do it right

Digital Government

Managing with courage

I am writing this column fresh from a fascinating experience teaching a group of Senior Executive Service (SES) managers in an executive education class at Harvard University

People

Project management 101

A book by J. Davidson serves as a primer for understanding project management

Digital Government

'Bundling' confusion

Contract bundling seems to be a difficult issue for people to understand.

Acquisition

Opposition in union

Commentary: Democrats should shun the scorched-earth procurement policies of the federal unions

People

Serving the public

Commentary: Students believe the government is likely to make available the least desirable e-government services

People

Mismanaging managers

Commentary: As long as we don't recognize that contract managers are managers, it will be hard to attract high-flyers to those jobs

Acquisition

Nothing lies like statistics

The percentage of government contract dollars going to small businesses has been remarkably stable during the past decade

Digital Government

A basis for reform

The National Commission on the Public Service report on improving government performance is a remarkable document

Acquisition

Assessing our goals

Commentary: An organization forced to focus on constraints rather than goals is in deep trouble