ABSTRACT
Competitive procurement is a set of procedures for subcontracting work through a bidding process. The intent is to solicit fair, impartial, competitive bids. The competitive bidding process tends to be rigid. Consequently, many organizations that subcontract or outsource information system development work use a streamlined version of the competitive bidding process that sacrifices some control to gain time. Competitive procurement can occur during or immediately after the problem definition, analysis, and design phases of the system development life cycle, and specific subsystems or tasks can be put out for competitive bids at any stage. The competitive procurement process was initially developed by the US Department of Defense as a means to minimize costs and ensure fair access on major military-related projects. DoD-STD-2167A defines procedures for defense system software development. The system/segment design documents, or B-specs, define, in black-box form, the components that occupy the configuration item level.
