Evaluation of Civil Engineering Operations Flight Competitive Sourcing Standards and Metrics

The Performance Work Statement (PWS), which defines the requirements and shapes the outcome of the activity under contract, and the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP), which is vital in identifying what is to be evaluated, become critical documents as the Air Force enters into more competitive sourcing contracts. Currently, contractors and Most Efficient Organizations (MEO) are evaluated by the QASP based upon the requirements found in the PWS. It is imperative the PWS and QASP documents have adequate performance metrics and that they are applied appropriately to evaluate the contractor or MEO. This research collected PWS and QASP documents from eight Civil Engineer Operations Flights across the Air Force that have completed or are undergoing competitive sourcing. 161 performance standards and metrics were identified and an evaluation was conducted on them to determine if the standards and metrics were sufficient to evaluate the contractor or MEO. The two-part evaluation system was developed from metric design literature and features from both Total Quality Management and the Government Performance Results Act. The evaluation system was also applied to Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency metrics and templates. The results indicate critical areas of Civil Engineer Operations Flight are not sufficiently evaluated due to insufficient and improperly designed standards and metrics. As a result of this research, 19 metrics were developed for evaluating the Operations Flight along with an evaluation system that can be used to assess the design of metrics currently used by any organization.