Performance Work Statements Course
IDACQI8519

Module 1: Introduction to Statements of Work (SOWs)

• Explain the services acquisition process and why clear, complete SOWs matter.
• Differentiate specification types and requirement documents, including SOW, PWS, and SOO.
• Apply FAR principles such as promoting competition and reflecting only the government’s minimum needs.
• Use the order of precedence for requirements documents to select the right approach.
• Recognize how requirement wording affects competition, interpretation, and performance risk.

Module 2: Service Contracts

• Define service contracts and review common examples across federal missions.
• Trace the evolution of service contracting and diagnose frequent problem areas like poor planning and oversight.
• Distinguish personal from non-personal services and identify legal boundaries for personal services.
• Mitigate vulnerabilities with on-site contractor personnel through management controls in the PWS.
• Explain why services are difficult to describe and how to express outcomes for intangible deliverables.

Module 3: Performance-Based Acquisition (PBA)

• Summarize the Seven Steps to Service Acquisition and related DoD “Complete Guide” steps.
• Identify PBA’s core elements: PWS written to outcomes, measurable standards, QASP, and incentives.
• Use market research resources and tools to inform requirements and strategy.
• State PBA objectives such as maximizing performance, competition, commercial practices, and savings.
• Develop performance indicators and standards that enable objective assessment.

Module 4: Requirements Analysis

• Perform a job analysis that produces inputs, work, outputs, workload, and resource needs.
• Develop performance indicators, performance standards, and acceptable quality levels (AQLs).
• Build an Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) using historical data, workload, and resource analyses.
• Select and structure incentive arrangements and deductions aligned to measurable performance.
• Compile the Performance Requirements Summary (PRS) matrix to bridge analysis into the PWS.

Module 5: Writing the Performance Work Statement (PWS)

• Organize the PWS with scope, tasks, deliverables, schedules, performance standards, quality control, and special requirements.
• Write clearly using plain language, active voice, and unambiguous terms that focus on “what,” not “how.”
• Encourage innovation by avoiding prescriptive labor categories and excessive “how-to” requirements.
• Understand when to use a Statement of Objectives (SOO) and how it shifts solutioning to offerors.
• Align the PWS with the PRS so monitoring and acceptance are traceable to defined outcomes.

Module 6: Quality Assurance

• Describe the purpose and key elements of a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP).
• Select monitoring methods that map to indicators, standards, and AQLs in the PRS/PWS.
• Identify remedies for substandard performance, including deductions when reperformance is not feasible.
• Clarify surveillance roles and responsibilities to ensure consistent, documented oversight.