Revolutionary FAR Overhaul
Everything you knew about government contracting just changed — are you ready?
The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul rewrote the rules of federal contracting, and this course teaches you to navigate them with confidence. There are no prerequisites and no prior courses required. Whether you're new to acquisition or a seasoned federal contracting pro, each class meets you where you are and elevates your understanding step by step — building the skill to find, interpret, and apply the right guidance with speed and certainty.
Here's what makes this course different from any other FAR training: the Overhaul isn't finished. The recodification is still unfolding, agency class deviations are still landing, and the FAR Companion and Practitioner Albums are still filling in. That means the most valuable skill isn't memorizing what changed — it's learning how to find and verify the governing rule for any situation, even as the rules keep moving. This course teaches you the current changes, but more importantly, it teaches you the durable research and analytical skill that keeps you current no matter what changes next.
You'll learn how the statutes, the new RFO FAR, the FAR Companion, Practitioner Albums, and agency class deviations connect — and how to locate the governing rule for any situation. The goal isn't just to understand what changed; it's to understand why, and to turn that insight into real-world judgment and strategic advantage for your organization.
Phoenix Canyon offers this course in three lengths, and each one does something genuinely different:
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — One-Day Essentials
Understand what changed.
You can't win the game if you don't know the rules. This high-impact introduction is built for busy professionals who need a fast, focused understanding of what the Overhaul did and what it means for their work — without a week away from the desk.
In one focused day, you'll get the whole picture: the story of the RFO and why it happened, the new architecture at a glance (how the slimmed-down FAR, the FAR Companion, the Practitioner Albums, and agency class deviations now fit together), and a clear-eyed tour of the most consequential changes — what was removed, what moved to the Practitioner Albums, the FAR Companion, and the Category Management Buying Guide, and what's now driven by deviation. You'll learn where the rules now live and how finding them has changed, so you're never caught flat-footed by a structure you don't recognize. And you'll leave with a practical understanding of what you need to do differently now.
This one-day course is for awareness, not a true research course — you'll leave able to explain the Overhaul to your team and leadership with clarity and confidence, knowing what changed, why it matters, and what to do about it. The right choice when you need clarity and readiness fast. 8 CLPs.
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — Three-Day Strategic Concentration
Learn to navigate it yourself.
Everyone can read the new FAR. Few can use it to their advantage. Where the One-Day Essentials shows you what changed, this three-day course teaches you to work the new structure yourself — how to find, interpret, and apply the governing rules for your own real-world situations.
This is the research-skill course. You'll learn the new authority chain — statute, the RFO FAR, the FAR Companion, the Practitioner Albums, the Category Management Buying Guide, and agency class deviations — and, critically, what is mandatory versus what is merely guidance (one of the Overhaul's biggest shifts). Through guided, hands-on labs, you'll work real scenarios: locate the governing rule, verify it against statutory authority, trace cross-references, and answer the question every contractor is asking right now — "the FAR used to say X; where did it go?" You'll learn to read class deviations and know when they apply to your situation (and when the old FAR still controls), allowing you to resolve the gray-area questions the new structure creates.
You'll build the same research and analytical skill trusted by top-tier contracting officers, attorneys, and policy leads — the ability to navigate the RFO FAR efficiently and turn every regulatory change into strategic advantage. You leave able to answer your own contracting questions under the new structure, no matter your role or experience level. 24 CLPs.
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — Five-Day Masterclass
Become the expert others rely on.
This is where professionals become experts — confident, trusted, and ready to use the new RFO FAR to mitigate risk and capture strategic advantage. This full-week immersive program takes you from understanding the FAR to commanding it, and it goes where the shorter tiers can't: into judgment, ambiguity, and authority.
You'll do everything the three-day course does, then go further. You'll master gray-area resolution — what to do when the Companion and a deviation seem to conflict, when guidance falls silent, or when removed regulatory text leaves genuine ambiguity (the Overhaul created plenty of all three). You'll work the why at depth: the policy and statutory reasoning behind the changes, so you can interpret intent and anticipate where things are heading — a real edge while the FAR is still evolving. You'll build defensible interpretations and audit trails, spot where the new structure creates protest or finding risk before it bites, and develop the skill to explain and defend your answer to leadership, auditors, or counsel.
Each day builds mastery through high-impact labs and scenario-based problem solving — the same skills used by top-tier contracting officers, attorneys, and policy leads. A final capstone simulation brings everything together, testing your speed, accuracy, and ability to apply the framework under real-world conditions. You'll leave making sense of the FAR in ways others can't — the expert people trust for the right answer, every time. And at 40 CLPs, it's a substantial block of high-value continuous learning in a single course.
Instructor Bio: This course is taught by Melinda Milheim, JD, who draws on her law degree, MBA studies, and the experience she earned working on more than $7.7 billion in contracts as a Contract Specialist and COR at the U.S. Navy and the Department of Health and Human Services / Indian Health Service to teach federal contractors how to read, navigate, and command the new FAR. An award-winning DAU/WarU (DAWIA and FAI) instructor who has taught more than 1,000 federal acquisition workforce students across 20-plus agencies, she focuses on the "why" behind the "how," so students leave with sharper judgment, able to critically apply their knowledge to the questions that come across their desk on a daily basis.
One-Day Essentials — Best for: leaders, executives, and busy professionals who need to understand what the Overhaul changed and what it means for their organization — and anyone who wants a fast, confident command of the new landscape before deciding how deep to go. No prior FAR experience required.
Three-Day Strategic Concentration — Best for: contracting, capture, proposal, and compliance professionals who work with the FAR regularly and need to research, interpret, and apply the new rules to their own day-to-day situations — not just know that they changed. No prior FAR experience required; the course builds the research skill from the ground up.
Five-Day Masterclass — Best for: the person who needs to be their organization's FAR authority — contracts leads, senior acquisition and compliance staff, consultants, and anyone responsible for finding, defending, and advising on the right answer. Best for professionals ready to develop genuine subject-matter expertise in the new regulatory framework.
Format: Available as a one-day, three-day, or five-day course, delivered in person or virtually. Phoenix Canyon issues every attendee a certificate of completion documenting the number of training hours as well as CLPs and CEUs earned. Attendees earn 8 CLPs per day (roughly 0.8 CEU per full day), which government agencies and other employers may count toward annual continuous learning or professional development requirements. Please verify your organization's policy to determine eligibility.
You might also consider
Federal Contracting Professional Certification — our complete five-module program for contractors who want the full federal contracting curriculum; this RFO course goes deeper on the regulatory-research skill that program introduces.
Acquisition Law — the big-picture legal framework behind how the government buys: the sources of law, ethics and integrity, competition, protests, and the rules that run across the whole acquisition lifecycle.
Federal Contracting Law Made Simple — federal contracting law in plain language, built for practical, on-the-job use and protecting yourself and your organization.
Pricing is set per engagement. Contact Phoenix Canyon to request a quote.
Everything you knew about government contracting just changed — are you ready?
The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul rewrote the rules of federal contracting, and this course teaches you to navigate them with confidence. There are no prerequisites and no prior courses required. Whether you're new to acquisition or a seasoned federal contracting pro, each class meets you where you are and elevates your understanding step by step — building the skill to find, interpret, and apply the right guidance with speed and certainty.
Here's what makes this course different from any other FAR training: the Overhaul isn't finished. The recodification is still unfolding, agency class deviations are still landing, and the FAR Companion and Practitioner Albums are still filling in. That means the most valuable skill isn't memorizing what changed — it's learning how to find and verify the governing rule for any situation, even as the rules keep moving. This course teaches you the current changes, but more importantly, it teaches you the durable research and analytical skill that keeps you current no matter what changes next.
You'll learn how the statutes, the new RFO FAR, the FAR Companion, Practitioner Albums, and agency class deviations connect — and how to locate the governing rule for any situation. The goal isn't just to understand what changed; it's to understand why, and to turn that insight into real-world judgment and strategic advantage for your organization.
Phoenix Canyon offers this course in three lengths, and each one does something genuinely different:
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — One-Day Essentials
Understand what changed.
You can't win the game if you don't know the rules. This high-impact introduction is built for busy professionals who need a fast, focused understanding of what the Overhaul did and what it means for their work — without a week away from the desk.
In one focused day, you'll get the whole picture: the story of the RFO and why it happened, the new architecture at a glance (how the slimmed-down FAR, the FAR Companion, the Practitioner Albums, and agency class deviations now fit together), and a clear-eyed tour of the most consequential changes — what was removed, what moved to the Practitioner Albums, the FAR Companion, and the Category Management Buying Guide, and what's now driven by deviation. You'll learn where the rules now live and how finding them has changed, so you're never caught flat-footed by a structure you don't recognize. And you'll leave with a practical understanding of what you need to do differently now.
This one-day course is for awareness, not a true research course — you'll leave able to explain the Overhaul to your team and leadership with clarity and confidence, knowing what changed, why it matters, and what to do about it. The right choice when you need clarity and readiness fast. 8 CLPs.
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — Three-Day Strategic Concentration
Learn to navigate it yourself.
Everyone can read the new FAR. Few can use it to their advantage. Where the One-Day Essentials shows you what changed, this three-day course teaches you to work the new structure yourself — how to find, interpret, and apply the governing rules for your own real-world situations.
This is the research-skill course. You'll learn the new authority chain — statute, the RFO FAR, the FAR Companion, the Practitioner Albums, the Category Management Buying Guide, and agency class deviations — and, critically, what is mandatory versus what is merely guidance (one of the Overhaul's biggest shifts). Through guided, hands-on labs, you'll work real scenarios: locate the governing rule, verify it against statutory authority, trace cross-references, and answer the question every contractor is asking right now — "the FAR used to say X; where did it go?" You'll learn to read class deviations and know when they apply to your situation (and when the old FAR still controls), allowing you to resolve the gray-area questions the new structure creates.
You'll build the same research and analytical skill trusted by top-tier contracting officers, attorneys, and policy leads — the ability to navigate the RFO FAR efficiently and turn every regulatory change into strategic advantage. You leave able to answer your own contracting questions under the new structure, no matter your role or experience level. 24 CLPs.
Revolutionary FAR Overhaul — Five-Day Masterclass
Become the expert others rely on.
This is where professionals become experts — confident, trusted, and ready to use the new RFO FAR to mitigate risk and capture strategic advantage. This full-week immersive program takes you from understanding the FAR to commanding it, and it goes where the shorter tiers can't: into judgment, ambiguity, and authority.
You'll do everything the three-day course does, then go further. You'll master gray-area resolution — what to do when the Companion and a deviation seem to conflict, when guidance falls silent, or when removed regulatory text leaves genuine ambiguity (the Overhaul created plenty of all three). You'll work the why at depth: the policy and statutory reasoning behind the changes, so you can interpret intent and anticipate where things are heading — a real edge while the FAR is still evolving. You'll build defensible interpretations and audit trails, spot where the new structure creates protest or finding risk before it bites, and develop the skill to explain and defend your answer to leadership, auditors, or counsel.
Each day builds mastery through high-impact labs and scenario-based problem solving — the same skills used by top-tier contracting officers, attorneys, and policy leads. A final capstone simulation brings everything together, testing your speed, accuracy, and ability to apply the framework under real-world conditions. You'll leave making sense of the FAR in ways others can't — the expert people trust for the right answer, every time. And at 40 CLPs, it's a substantial block of high-value continuous learning in a single course.
Instructor Bio: This course is taught by Melinda Milheim, JD, who draws on her law degree, MBA studies, and the experience she earned working on more than $7.7 billion in contracts as a Contract Specialist and COR at the U.S. Navy and the Department of Health and Human Services / Indian Health Service to teach federal contractors how to read, navigate, and command the new FAR. An award-winning DAU/WarU (DAWIA and FAI) instructor who has taught more than 1,000 federal acquisition workforce students across 20-plus agencies, she focuses on the "why" behind the "how," so students leave with sharper judgment, able to critically apply their knowledge to the questions that come across their desk on a daily basis.
One-Day Essentials — Best for: leaders, executives, and busy professionals who need to understand what the Overhaul changed and what it means for their organization — and anyone who wants a fast, confident command of the new landscape before deciding how deep to go. No prior FAR experience required.
Three-Day Strategic Concentration — Best for: contracting, capture, proposal, and compliance professionals who work with the FAR regularly and need to research, interpret, and apply the new rules to their own day-to-day situations — not just know that they changed. No prior FAR experience required; the course builds the research skill from the ground up.
Five-Day Masterclass — Best for: the person who needs to be their organization's FAR authority — contracts leads, senior acquisition and compliance staff, consultants, and anyone responsible for finding, defending, and advising on the right answer. Best for professionals ready to develop genuine subject-matter expertise in the new regulatory framework.
Format: Available as a one-day, three-day, or five-day course, delivered in person or virtually. Phoenix Canyon issues every attendee a certificate of completion documenting the number of training hours as well as CLPs and CEUs earned. Attendees earn 8 CLPs per day (roughly 0.8 CEU per full day), which government agencies and other employers may count toward annual continuous learning or professional development requirements. Please verify your organization's policy to determine eligibility.
You might also consider
Federal Contracting Professional Certification — our complete five-module program for contractors who want the full federal contracting curriculum; this RFO course goes deeper on the regulatory-research skill that program introduces.
Acquisition Law — the big-picture legal framework behind how the government buys: the sources of law, ethics and integrity, competition, protests, and the rules that run across the whole acquisition lifecycle.
Federal Contracting Law Made Simple — federal contracting law in plain language, built for practical, on-the-job use and protecting yourself and your organization.
Pricing is set per engagement. Contact Phoenix Canyon to request a quote.