Prior to establishing the ARB’s processes and procedures, OCT had to develop an understanding of successful acquisition and program management at DoS. What standards of evaluation would acquisition programs going before the ARB be held to? What aspects of acquisition and program management needed to be emphasized to achieve the Department’s strategic goals? Using OCT’s federal acquisition expertise, the OCT team conducted a thorough review of federal acquisition guidelines, including the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) and Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), to establish baseline success criteria for all dimensions of acquisition and program management. Recognizing that there was additionally a wealth of institutional knowledge within the Department, OCT emphasized stakeholder engagement in the process of developing the oversight body’s evaluation framework. OCT held a number of focus groups with Department executives and acquisition professionals to understand both areas of improvement and previous examples of success in procurement and program planning.

After developing an evaluation framework that was both specific enough to provide consistent guidance and flexible enough to allow for the evaluation of multiple contract types, OCT faced the challenge of developing a set of processes and procedures that could eventually be institutionalized within OPE and the Department. How could OPE balance the need for simplicity that would encourage participation in these new processes and the need for robust and consistent review procedures?

OCT conducted an analysis of similar acquisition review boards at other federal agencies and developed an eight-week review cycle that consists of two phases – a preliminary phase that would allow time for training DoS employees on acquisition and program management best practices and a review phase in which a program’s acquisition and program management strategies would be evaluated by a group of subject matter experts. OCT delivered robust Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that detail every step required for successful administration of the eight-week cycle.

Finally, OCT had to help OPE understand how to institutionalize the review body within the Department. Using principles of change management, OCT conducted a stakeholder analysis to determine areas of resistance and how OPE could overcome them. How does OPE incentivize voluntary participation in a mandatory process? While acquisition programs over a certain dollar threshold are required to come before the review body, OPE executives wanted OCT to emphasize the Department-wide benefits of acquisition oversight. While the new requirements associated with the ARB can be seen by DoS employees as additional work, the long-term benefits to proactive acquisition and program management planning will be felt across the Department and at all levels. To this end, OCT held regular briefings with DoS employees to familiarize them with the review board framework, processes, and procedures, as well as with the benefits for both employees and the Department at large.