In 1988, I met my first Human Factors engineer and had my eyes opened just a peep to the benefits. In 2018, my eldest spawn got her PhD in Psychology, with an emphasis in Human Factors and virtual reality. My discussions with her over the years of writing her dissertation pried my eyes open wide to the goodness of adding human factors to training. When I first saw the Adaptive Acquisition Framework and Contracting Cone, I immediately wanted to click on the different areas to explore them. Okay, so that’s not an easy thing to do. Well, score one for Read More
Category: Tools
SBIR Hell, Urban Fantasy, & Baking Your Proposals
“SBIR Hell,” we used to call it. There’s a way for small firms to avoid it if you know how to bake your proposals. SBIR Hell: Contracting Officer POV From a seasoned Contracting Officer’s point of view, SBIR hell started the moment the PR (purchase request) packages finally hit my desk, often days or weeks after Congress said I was supposed to have the contracts awarded and there I was, looking at the proposals, funding, and everything in between for the first time, and spending my yearly bonus on Ibuprofen for the impending headache. Weird, but even though I needed Read More
How to Handle Contractors during Government Shutdowns
Every time there’s a Government shutdown, a devastating hurricane, the funeral of a former President, or an occasional Christmas Eve time-off-with-pay given to Federal employees, the next question is always the same: What do we do about our Contractors while Federal employees are stuck at home? Somehow it always seems to be a surprise. It’s not like there’s never going to be another shutdown. In this age of governing by brinksmanship–regardless of which political party you’re a fan of, of any–I can almost guarantee you we’ll have at least three shutdown threats a year, and during every one, even if Read More