Acquisition guide · Performance-based software
Compare buying models, deal honestly with uncertainty, and define how the Government will judge the work. This guide follows the FAR and GSA path from mission need through closeout.
Minimum viable starting point
You need enough shared reality to define the next useful result. We can help turn these four inputs into a clearer performance objective. Buyer-side acquisition support is a distinct, OCI-screened role, and Government officials retain acquisition decisions.
Name what people cannot accomplish today and what must become possible.
Tell us when the capability becomes useful, or identify the point at which delay becomes costly.
Identify the systems, data, policies, approvals, and people the outcome depends on.
Convene the program, acquisition, technical, security, privacy, and accessibility voices that can resolve tradeoffs.
You do not need a perfect performance work statement, a prescribed staffing plan, a finished architecture, or a complete acceptance plan. Those artifacts should follow from the mission result and acquisition strategy; they should not substitute for them.
Three different things to buy
Alignment comes from defining a useful result and how the Government will assess it, then choosing a lawful contract type that fits the uncertainty. This comparison is not an eligibility screen for working with Intelligrit.
Model 1
Model 2
This describes a labor-shaped requirement; it is not FAR terminology.
FFP anchor: FAR 16.202-1Model 3
This is Intelligrit shorthand for performance design within FFP, not a new FAR contract type.
FAR 37.102 and 37.602FAR 16.601 defines time-and-materials as direct labor hours at fixed hourly rates plus materials at cost. It permits T&M only when the extent or duration of the work or its costs cannot be estimated with reasonable confidence, and states that T&M provides no positive profit incentive for cost control or labor efficiency.
FAR 16.202-1 says a firm-fixed price is not adjusted based on the contractor’s cost experience. The contractor assumes maximum cost risk and has an incentive to control costs and perform effectively.
FAR 37.102 makes performance-based acquisition the preferred method for acquiring services and places firm-fixed-price performance-based acquisition first in its stated order of precedence.
FAR 37.602 directs agencies to describe required results rather than how the work is performed or a number of hours, and to use measurable performance standards and assessment methods.
Use it where it fits
Strong fit
Do not force the fit
Start with a bounded discovery or prototype that produces the evidence needed for the next decision.
A familiar Government path
This is Intelligrit’s concise translation of GSA’s Government-wide Steps to Performance-Based Acquisition. Agency policy, legal review, and contracting officer judgment still govern.
Bring the people who understand the mission, acquisition, users, technology, and approvals.
State the mission objective and required result. Prescribe staffing only when the acquisition strategy genuinely requires it.
Test feasibility, delivery patterns, risks, and what capable vendors can own.
Define the required outcome, boundary, constraints, dependencies, and Government-furnished inputs.
Choose measurable standards, assessment methods, incentives, surveillance, and acceptance authority.
Evaluate demonstrated understanding, credible methods, risk controls, and ability to deliver.
Inspect working capability and agreed evidence; resolve dependencies and changes explicitly.
Accept, transition, document performance, close out, and decide separately whether another objective is warranted.
The honest risks
Outcome discipline works only when the result and responsibilities are clear. It keeps the contractor accountable for its assigned scope; cost risk follows the contract type. Dependencies, oversight, and formal change control still apply.
Control: Bound the result, exclusions, standards, assessment method, dependencies, and acceptance authority before pricing delivery.
Control: Name Government-furnished inputs and decision deadlines; use a paid discovery or prototype when uncertainty is still material.
Control: Use balanced functional, security, privacy, accessibility, operability, and transition standards. Avoid relying on one vanity measure.
Control: Maintain a shared decision record and use formal change authority when the outcome, boundary, assumptions, or dependencies change.
Control: Make evidence part of the deliverable: tests, controls, accessibility results, deployment readiness, documentation, and known limitations.
Acceptance creates a real decision
Path 01
Deliver the agreed source, data, documentation, evidence, training, and operating knowledge. Resolve closeout items and leave an independently useful capability.
Path 02
Use accepted performance and current mission evidence to shape another bounded increment. A follow-on is never assumed, and the completed increment must not depend on one to be useful.
Primary sources
Acquisition strategy, contract type, terms, acceptance authority, and award decisions remain Government decisions. This page provides general orientation, not legal advice or an agency-specific determination.