Contract Writing System

Abstract

The Army Contract Writing System (ACWS) will be the Army's single, next-generation, enterprise-wide contract writing, management, execution, and close-out software system. ACWS will facilitate the standardization of Army Procurement business processes and streamline the integration with Army Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. As a financial feeder system, ACWS will meet the compliance requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996. The system will meet the full scope of Army contracting requirements, including those in secure and non-secure locations, those supporting combat or non-combat contingencies, those within or outside the borders of the Continental United States, those supporting grants and assistance agreements, and those performing weapons systems, construction, installation, and other specialized contracting activities. This is consistent with initial DoD guidance 21 October 2011, which directed the Services to develop a new contract writing system. Since awarding a contract to CGI Federal Inc. on 22 May 2017, the program completed risk reduction that aligned Army's business processes to the selected commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product, and reduced unnecessary requirements and interfaces. The program conducted a successful Baseline Authority to Proceed (ATP) decision on 18 August 2018, and obtained the Army Acquisition Executive's approval to award initial development task order. ACWS is on track to deploy a Minimum Viable Solution (MVS) to two pilot units during FY 2020, and achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) NLT 4QFY2020. If the full capability is not fully deployed by the end of FY 2023, the Army will incur the full SPS bill ($14M+/ year). ACWS will also enable the decommission of the Procurement Automated Data and Document System (PADDS) and Virtual Contracting Enterprise (VCE) systems. ACWS was approved by The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD (A&S)) as a pilot program supporting the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Section 873 Agile Pilots. The ACWS Agile 873 pilot Realignment Plan was approved 2QFY2019 and cites duration of the Program as five years through Full Deployment. As part of the Sec 873 activities ACWS is realigning and restructuring prior to the Full Deployment (FD) to include a contract structure that enables Agile best practices and incremental capability delivery to the field. ACWS will support OSD requirements to quickly identify Agile development lessons learned, reduce procedural delays, improve policy, and enhance workforce training. Sec 873 Pilot Programs are intended to provide programs the opportunity to restructure in order to streamline contract and acquisition approaches, and tear down barriers to agile development without penalty. The process allows the Army ability to analyze and prioritize requirements to enable deployable product on demand, the cadence and content of system documentation and programmatic reviews, and a transparent culture in a blended government-system integrator team. ACWS participates in the 873 Community of Practice (CoP), sharing and utilizing lessons learned, shaping agile policy, processes, and tools for DoD. During FY 2020, ACWS will coordinate with the Navy's eProcurement System (ePS) team to identify and implement efficiencies; the two teams will continue implementing those plans during FY 2021, including using combined buying power for potential economies of scale for license purchases. FY 2021 RDTE Funding will support the development of Full Deployment (FD) functionality of ACWS. ACWS will continue/initiate development of capabilities including integration with the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP), important contracting functions to manage complex weapons procurements, and other key system interfaces and functionality. Business system interfaces will be developed with these key partners to complete system development.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2021
• Source ID: 0605047A_5_2040_PB_2021
• Change Summary Explanation: The original ACWS schedule showed two major software releases to deliver the Army Contract Writing capability and retire three legacy contract writing systems/ tools by FY2023 (SPS/ PADDS/ VCE). ACWS changed its schedule and approach in July 2018 to better align with its funding profile and the outcome of POM20-24. Adjusting to this funding profile, ACWS revised their schedule to deliver three incremental capabilities (Minimal Viable Solution [MVS], Initial Operating Capability [IOC], and Full Deployment [FD]). These changes, coupled with the risk reduction task order resulting in refined requirements, drive the increase in FY2021. The President's FY2020 budget marks ACWS by $2.6 million.
• Service Agency Name: Army

Entities

Organizations

• United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Cyber
• Human Systems
• Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Agile Software Development
• Army Procurement
• Best Practices
• Business Administration
• Community Of Practice
• Contracts
• Deployment
• Financial Management
• Governments
• Lessons Learned
• National Security
• Procurement
• Product Development
• Risk Management
• Test And Evaluation
• United States

Fields of Study

• Computer science

Readers

• Civilian Systems Systems Program Capability Development and Upgrade Support Activity Expense and Pay Management.
• Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
• Military Logistics and Supply Chain Management