Practice Areas
Acquisition Workforce Studies
and Analyses
Solutions understands that the effectiveness of an agency's procurement operations depends directly on the competency and adequacy of its acquisition workforce. We have extensive knowledge and experience with the complex issues affecting the acquisition workforce, and have developed and apply specialized tools and models to assist agencies in conducting meaningful studies and analyses. We apply rigorous analyses to determine the skill sets and numbers needed for an acquisition office to successfully plan, award and administer contracts that enable the agency to meet its mission.
In 2008, Solutions developed the Workload Comparability Model (WCM™) to estimate the appropriate number of needed contracting staff for an office, agency, or department. The WCM™ goes beyond typical cost-to-spend ratios by assessing significant factors that contribute to the overall complexity of an agency's contracting workload. The model uses readily available procurement and personnel data to produce estimates for optimal operational and support staffing by comparing a department or agency's workload with other agencies with similar average transaction sizes. By applying the WCM™, Solutions provides data-driven, well-documented recommendations for acquisition workforce optimization.
Benefits of Using Solutions WCM™
- More detailed than cost-to-spend/spend per employee approaches
- Repeatable, scalable and flexible
- Provides specificity and justification for staffing requests
For nearly a decade, Solutions provided acquisition workforce assistance to the Department of Defense (DoD), and developed the methodology used for determining who should be included in the annual count of the DoD acquisition workforce.
