Federal Contracting Terminology
Clear definitions for the terms that matter in federal capture management.
B
Best Value (Tradeoff)
An evaluation method where the government weighs technical quality, past performance, and price together, allowing a higher-priced offer to…
BPA (Blanket Purchase Agreement)
A simplified acquisition method establishing a charge account with a contractor for recurring purchases, typically used under GSA Schedule…
C
CAGE Code (Commercial and Government Entity Code)
A five-character identifier assigned by the Defense Logistics Agency to entities doing business with the federal government, used in…
Capture Management
Capture management is the disciplined process of identifying, qualifying, and positioning to win specific federal contract opportunities.…
F
FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation)
The primary body of rules governing federal procurement, establishing policies and procedures for acquiring supplies and services with…
FFP (Firm Fixed Price)
A contract type where the contractor delivers at a predetermined price regardless of actual costs, placing maximum cost risk on the…
G
GO/NO-GO Decision
A GO/NO-GO decision is a formal evaluation gate in the capture process where leadership decides whether to invest resources in pursuing a…
GSA Schedule (Multiple Award Schedule)
A long-term government-wide contract vehicle managed by GSA that gives agencies pre-negotiated pricing for commercial products and…
GWAC (Government-Wide Acquisition Contract)
A pre-competed, multi-agency IDIQ contract vehicle for IT products and services that any federal agency can use, managed by a single agency…
P
Past Performance
A contractor's record of delivering on previous federal contracts, evaluated during source selection as an indicator of future performance…
Pwin (Probability of Win)
Pwin is a quantitative score estimating how likely a contractor is to win a specific federal contract opportunity. Calculated from weighted…
R
RFI (Request for Information)
A pre-solicitation notice agencies issue to gather market information, assess industry capabilities, and shape upcoming requirements before…
RFP (Request for Proposal)
A formal solicitation document the federal government issues requesting detailed proposals from contractors, specifying requirements in…
S
SAM.gov (System for Award Management)
The federal government's official system for entity registration, contract opportunity posting, exclusion screening, and award data — the…
SDVOSB (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business)
A federal set-aside category reserving contracts for small businesses owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans, verified through…
Section L (Instructions to Offerors)
The section of a federal solicitation that tells contractors exactly how to structure, format, and submit their proposal — volumes, page…
Section M (Evaluation Criteria)
The section of a federal solicitation that defines how the government will evaluate proposals, specifying evaluation factors, subfactors,…
Set-Aside
A set-aside is a federal contracting mechanism that restricts competition on a contract to specific categories of small businesses, such as…
Shipley Process
The Shipley Process is a structured business development and proposal management methodology used in federal contracting. It defines seven…
Sole Source Contract
A contract awarded to a single contractor without full-and-open competition, authorized under specific FAR provisions when only one source…
Sources Sought Notice
A pre-solicitation notice published on SAM.gov where agencies seek information about potential sources before deciding whether to compete a…