The seemingly never-ending quest for acquisition reform and streamlining typically takes aim at three targets: regulations, organizational structure and/or workforce training/competency requirements.
Regarding the latter, mandating training/competency expectations exclusively for the federal workforce, without consideration of what the wider profession must know and understand, narrows the pool of potential candidates able (or willing) to work for the government, while simultaneously widening the gap between what “contract management” means to those working within the public sector and private sector — and even within each sector.
Today, there is little movement between federal to state or local, or to and from commercial. Unlike other professions, government contract managers are most likely to remain within their respective organizations for the vast majority of their careers. This environment limits the introduction of new ideas, keeps people in similar positions for long periods, and eventually creates an environment of stagnation with silos of standard or similar contracting strategies and processes. Most federal acquisition personnel who leave public service depart for the commercial sector — and rarely return.
In the modern age of increasingly outsourced staff, the future of effective government will require the most knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated contracting professionals available. Contract management will continue to rise in significance in this future. Where these future acquisition professionals come from and how they are motivated to enter or stay with the federal workforce is crucial to ensure this future is successful.
The fact is, there may indeed be millions involved in managing contracts in all segments of the U.S. economy — not just the federal government acquisition workforce, but within state governments, local governments, and thousands upon thousands of commercial industry organizations. A uniform, single certification or qualification (similar to those required to practice within highly regulated and complex professions — such as accounting and law), based on a widely accepted standard, and developed by a third party (not one specific entity) might achieve such objectives for the contract management profession.
Such a certification/qualification would:
- Leverage existing commercial, educational resources in the marketplace, minimizing government-unique institutional training costs;
- Be an easily recognizable credential to all prospective employers, permitting flexible movement between sectors;
- Greatly increase the potential workforce pool available to federal contracting hiring managers;
- Promote greater competition for federal positions;
- Address the government’s continuing loss of talent to the private sector once completing government-provided/unique training;
- Accelerate the hiring process by providing a strong indicator of competency knowledge;
- Permit the government to hire more experienced staff from the private sector; and
- Create a more flexible, responsive process for managing change within the profession at large by placing the responsibility for developing such well-qualified contracting professionals outside the purview of Congress or executive branch agencies and into the hands of third-party professional associations.
What if I told you that such a qualifying standard and body of knowledge has already been developed? And that’s not all — the ability to accredit educational curricula and programs has also been developed, as well as a model to assess operational contract management organizational structures. To validate the products and processes, they are assessed through a well-recognized and reputable third-party accreditor recognized for its standards development.
Federal government adoption of this revolutionary approach to contract management would be the most dramatic “reform” in a generation, while simultaneously simplifying everything. Imagine a world of expert acquisition, conducted by the best and the brightest across the nation. Imagine a movement away from today’s varied, inconsistent and organizationally specific training to a common professional standard; a widely accepted body of knowledge; a universal certification for contract management.
This is a framework we are ready for, and the time has come to embrace it!
Michael P. Fischetti is executive director of the National Contract Management Association.
