Best Value and the Tradeoff Decision — One-Day Essentials
Best value is the goal of every source selection — but in a tradeoff, the government can pay more for the better proposal so long as the decision to do so is adequately justified, documented, and defensible. This course provides the expertise to do it with confidence.
This course is for the acquisition workforce personnel who make, support, or document best-value tradeoff decisions and want to get them right.
We start with what best value actually means, and where the tradeoff process sits on the continuum — when it is the right approach, and what using tradeoffs lets the government do that lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) approach does not. We cover how to build the evaluation criteria a tradeoff depends on: choosing evaluation factors and significant subfactors that meaningfully distinguish between proposals, setting their relative importance, and stating how the non-price factors compare to price. We cover how the requirement itself and the SOW or PWS shape those criteria, and why the criteria in the solicitation are the only criteria that are allowed to decide the award.
From there we cover the decision itself: comparing proposals on their merits, weighing a higher-rated proposal against a higher price, and exercising the independent judgment the source selection authority is required to bring. We cover how to document that judgment — the rationale, the comparison, and the reason a price premium is or is not worth paying — so the decision stands up to review. We cover what raises protest risk in a tradeoff and how sound process and documentation reduce it. Throughout, we cover the public policy behind the best-value approach, where the rules live in the RFO FAR so you can find them yourself, and how a well-documented decision protects both the award and the organization.
This course is taught by Melinda Milheim, JD, who spent her federal career in the acquisition workforce. She served as a Contract Specialist, COR, and AOR for the U.S. Navy (and later a Contract Specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services / Indian Health Service), where she worked on more than $7.7 billion in federal contracts across RDT&E, engineering, medical, IT, construction, and major weapon-systems. She draws on that experience, along with her law degree and MBA studies, to teach the why behind the how — so participants leave with sharper judgment, not just a stack of slides. An award-winning DAU/WarU (DAWIA and FAI) instructor, she has taught more than 1,000 federal acquisition workforce students across 20-plus agencies.
Best for: source selection participants, technical evaluation panel members, contracting officers, contract specialists, and the program and technical staff who evaluate proposals and support award decisions — and anyone who makes, defends, or documents a best-value tradeoff that needs to hold up.
Format: Available as a one-day course, delivered in person or virtually. Eligible federal acquisition workforce attendees earn 8 CLPs. A note on CLPs: This course earns continuous learning points (CLPs) that both defense (DAWIA) and civilian (FAC-C, FAC-COR, and FAC-P/PM) acquisition professionals can apply toward their continuous learning requirements. Because agencies set their own rules on what qualifies for CLP credit, check with your Acquisition Career Manager (ACM) or component training office to confirm how it applies to your plan.
You might also consider
Source Selection Methodologies Under the RFO FAR — One-Day Essentials — the four best-value methods and how to choose among them, the natural companion to this deeper look at the tradeoff.
Source Selection Under the RFO FAR (4-Day) — all four source selection courses together, start to finish.
Conducting the Source Selection: Running the Evaluation Team — One-Day Essentials — how the evaluation that feeds the tradeoff decision is run and documented.
Pricing is set per engagement. Contact Phoenix Canyon to request a quote.
Best value is the goal of every source selection — but in a tradeoff, the government can pay more for the better proposal so long as the decision to do so is adequately justified, documented, and defensible. This course provides the expertise to do it with confidence.
This course is for the acquisition workforce personnel who make, support, or document best-value tradeoff decisions and want to get them right.
We start with what best value actually means, and where the tradeoff process sits on the continuum — when it is the right approach, and what using tradeoffs lets the government do that lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) approach does not. We cover how to build the evaluation criteria a tradeoff depends on: choosing evaluation factors and significant subfactors that meaningfully distinguish between proposals, setting their relative importance, and stating how the non-price factors compare to price. We cover how the requirement itself and the SOW or PWS shape those criteria, and why the criteria in the solicitation are the only criteria that are allowed to decide the award.
From there we cover the decision itself: comparing proposals on their merits, weighing a higher-rated proposal against a higher price, and exercising the independent judgment the source selection authority is required to bring. We cover how to document that judgment — the rationale, the comparison, and the reason a price premium is or is not worth paying — so the decision stands up to review. We cover what raises protest risk in a tradeoff and how sound process and documentation reduce it. Throughout, we cover the public policy behind the best-value approach, where the rules live in the RFO FAR so you can find them yourself, and how a well-documented decision protects both the award and the organization.
This course is taught by Melinda Milheim, JD, who spent her federal career in the acquisition workforce. She served as a Contract Specialist, COR, and AOR for the U.S. Navy (and later a Contract Specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services / Indian Health Service), where she worked on more than $7.7 billion in federal contracts across RDT&E, engineering, medical, IT, construction, and major weapon-systems. She draws on that experience, along with her law degree and MBA studies, to teach the why behind the how — so participants leave with sharper judgment, not just a stack of slides. An award-winning DAU/WarU (DAWIA and FAI) instructor, she has taught more than 1,000 federal acquisition workforce students across 20-plus agencies.
Best for: source selection participants, technical evaluation panel members, contracting officers, contract specialists, and the program and technical staff who evaluate proposals and support award decisions — and anyone who makes, defends, or documents a best-value tradeoff that needs to hold up.
Format: Available as a one-day course, delivered in person or virtually. Eligible federal acquisition workforce attendees earn 8 CLPs. A note on CLPs: This course earns continuous learning points (CLPs) that both defense (DAWIA) and civilian (FAC-C, FAC-COR, and FAC-P/PM) acquisition professionals can apply toward their continuous learning requirements. Because agencies set their own rules on what qualifies for CLP credit, check with your Acquisition Career Manager (ACM) or component training office to confirm how it applies to your plan.
You might also consider
Source Selection Methodologies Under the RFO FAR — One-Day Essentials — the four best-value methods and how to choose among them, the natural companion to this deeper look at the tradeoff.
Source Selection Under the RFO FAR (4-Day) — all four source selection courses together, start to finish.
Conducting the Source Selection: Running the Evaluation Team — One-Day Essentials — how the evaluation that feeds the tradeoff decision is run and documented.
Pricing is set per engagement. Contact Phoenix Canyon to request a quote.