I am a government employee . I recently inherited the duty of technical monitor on a government contract. I am not a contracts expert, but I am the most technical person in the office. Performance Reviews are due. I need some expert advice on how to frame this situation in my final report.
Situation: The contract was written, signed, and mostly executed by XYZ corp before I arrived. As expected the contract is extremely vague. We needed a capability that contract didn't explicitly state. Rather the contract stated Parts A, B, and C; each with $ amounts, equipment and nothing more.
The contractor has minimally delivered on the contract. Rather than deliver the capability, they provided a stack of equipment pieces and a report stating that our capability "Couldn't be done". The fact is the capability could be done and their competitor did so. We had to purchase the same capability from a separate vendor. This follow-on purchase cost us nearly as much as the origonal contract. We want to attribute the cost over run to XYZ corps inability to deliver.
XYZ showed no evidence of work that support their "cannot be done" conclusion. Engineering was done in their heads. Requirements were not managed. When 98% of the dollars had already been spent, the only system diagram available was one that I had to draw up myself. Electronic equipment was delivered covered in dirt. They stated that we never specified it had to be clean. They in numerous cases have demonstrated a hobby-shop level performance.
We are seriously displeased with XYZ's performance. They have satisfied the bare minimum terms of the contract without satisfying our needs.
My Assessment:
I have a bit of experience from a past life as a developer. In my opinion, a mature CMMI process would significantly mitigate this situation. A CMMI process would show traceability from requirements to design to implementation to test. We would know there is at least sufficient grounds to support their statement.
CMMI was never a selection consideration.
I think the Govt is partially responsible for setting this problem in motion without proper controls. It bothers me that XYZ should receive positive credit for minimal performance. Without some strong evidence, XYZ will appeal any negative review comments.
Questions:
1. Since we never specified a CMMI compliance level, can we hold them to a standard in our final report? ,on what justification?
2. No one in my office speaks CMMI. is there a bare minimum blanket CMMI standard that all DoD acquisition programs must adhere without it being explicitly stated?
3. Can it be stated that this company would not be awarded another like contract without CMMI accreditation?
4. Can we attribute the cost over run to XYZ's inability to deliver?
5. Given the situation, is there another approach I should use to reflect upon true performance?
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