ARE YOU REALLY READY FOR AN A-76 STUDY?

Just because a function has been announced for an A-76 study does not mean it is ready for such a study. "Starting a study" means you can immediately collect the data and start developing the performance work statement (PWS) and the most efficient organization (MEO).  Unless there was significant preparation effort prior to the study announcement, you're probably far from ready to start developing the various components of the study.  Few Government organizations keep records as would a business.  For instance, we do not account for our time by our specific products and services.  Rather, we account for our time by broad categories of endeavor, such as job orders, cost accounts, etc.  Consequently, we do not have such information as the average time it takes to complete specific tasks, the number of these tasks we are likely to produce in a specific time period (usually a year), our typical response and completion times, or the documentation we should have to assess our compliance with our task and time standards.

Yet, that is exactly the information we require to properly accomplish an A-76 study, unless we just hope that "blind luck" will be sufficient.

The following describes the criteria you should consider when judging just how prepared you are to start developing the A-76 study.  If you don't meet this criteria, you need to put in a lot of effort to get ready quickly, as the A-76 study clock starts within no more than a few months of the announcement date.

A function is ready to study when the following conditions are met:

a. The function's specific "contract deliverables" can be identified?  These deliverables have finite, measurable outputs.

b. The function's performance records identify the previously accomplished quantities and quality of deliverables, such as:

    • How many
    • Size distribution
    • Schedules and response times
    • Source of work inputs
    • Outputs accomplished by a work priority system

c. The level of expertise required to accomplish the deliverables is apparent from the available descriptions of the deliverables.

d. The function's deliverables can be readily inspected for quality and performance; the outputs of the deliverables can be discretely measured.

e. All deliverables have specific indicators of satisfactory performance, such as:

    • Schedule compliance
    • Quality of work produced
    • Compliance with response requirements
    • Degree of user/receiver satisfaction

The above criteria is typical of records maintained by a commercial business, and it is the same information you need for your study. If you don't meet the criteria now, you aren't ready yet.

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Criteria of a  Function Ready for an A-76 Study

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