Public Affairs 7550: Contract Management

Back to All Courses

This is a sample syllabus to provide general information about the course and it's requirements. Course requirements are subject to change. This syllabus does not contain all assignment or course detail and currently enrolled students should reference the syllabus provided by their instructor. For a specific syllabus, please email us a request.

Back to All Courses

Course Overview

3 Credit Hours
Modalities Available: Online Asynchronous

Upon completion of the course, students should understand that public officials have the responsibility to ethically acquire goods and services at the local, state and federal levels to meet the public's needs in a cost-effective manner.  This requires an understanding of basic procurement principles, legal authorities, socio-economic considerations, and various procurement methods available to accomplish these responsibilities. This course provides students with practical knowledge regarding contracting for goods and services, techniques to ensure successful outcomes, and a perspective on public procurement policy and issues, providing students an understanding of the government procurement process from both the government and private industry perspectives.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students should successfully be able to:

  • Define and understand:
    • The purpose and nature of public procurement and where public officials derive their authority
    • The functions and roles that make up the acquisition system
    • Fundamental contracting principles that provide the foundation for public procurement 
    • The ethical principles bounding public procurement officials
    • The elements of a request for proposal and various methodologies to acquire goods and services and objectively evaluate proposals
  • Critically analyze, apply or evaluate:
    • The outcomes of contract public sector services and assess weaknesses and strengths in their approach
    • An understanding of performance-based contracting and the criteria for a sound performance work statements and measurable work objectives
    • Socio-economic considerations in conducting public procurement
    • Contact administration techniques and processes to ensure timely delivery of goods and services
    • Between pre and post award legal issues that may arise in public procurement and means to resolve them
    • Examples of innovation in public procurement and how they can solve public problems
    • How to develop requirements and then solicit and evaluate offers for a contract
    • How to prepare a proposal in response to a solicitation

Requirements and Expectations

Mode of delivery: This course is 100% online. There are no required sessions when you must be logged in to Carmen at a scheduled time.

Required Materials: A text book may be required for this class. Please check your instructor's syllabus for details.

Pace of online activities: This course is divided into weekly modules that are released one to two weeks ahead of time. Students are expected to keep pace with weekly deadlines but may schedule their efforts freely within that time frame.

Credit hours and work expectations: This is a 3 credit-hour course. According to Ohio State bylaws on instruction, students should expect around 3 hours per week of time spent on direct instruction (instructor content and Carmen activities, for example) in addition to 6 hours of homework (reading and assignment preparation, for example) to receive a grade of [C] average.

Attendance and participation requirements: Research shows regular participation is one of the highest predictors of success. With that in mind, I have the following expectations for everyone’s participation:

  • Participating in online activities for attendance: at least twice per week
    You are expected to log in to the course in Carmen every week. During most weeks you will probably log in many times. If you have a situation that might cause you to miss an entire week of class, discuss it with one of us as soon as possible.
  • Participating in discussion forums: two or more times per week
    As part of your participation, each week you can expect to post at least twice as part of our substantive class discussion on the week's topics. Your posts should include more than a few sentences, demonstrating an understanding of the materials and build-on the comments of your peers. Students are especially encouraged to address the week's lessons considering current events and professional experience. In most cases, you will need to post a comment before you see peer comments. Each module will provide that note if it is applicable. When in doubt - post!  Initial posts should be completed each week by Sunday at 11:59pm Eastern Time

Introductory Video, 5 points

Basic Solicitation, 10 points

Short paper on ethics, 15 points

Maintain the Oval exercise, 100 points

Meaningful participation in weekly discussions, 55 points (5 points each for 11 modules)

Total, 185 points

Description: You will prepare a short (2 minutes maximum) video that introduces you to the class. Follow the instructions in the Before the Course Module, Introduce Yourself assignment.

Description: You will be required to create a basic single page solicitation for one of two scenarios. You will be provided with basic conditions to frame the solicitation and you will provide it to a fellow student and they will be required to respond.

Description: You will be provided with 2 ethical scenarios and be required to pick one and answer questions in a 1-page paper. Your response must demonstrate knowledge of ethics, application of critical thinking and analysis and use of logic and supporting rationale to draw appropriate conclusions.

Description: During this course, you will be required to respond to questions and colleagues on various weekly topics and readings. Your responses (analyses, thoughts, observations, and comments) will be evaluated on their quality; defined as relating to course objectives, materials, and demonstrating that you can apply what you have learned in the course to date.

 

Description: This is the capstone exercise that runs throughout most of the course that contains several sub activities. The class will be divided into government acquisition and industry teams and each government acquisition team will create a solicitation to maintain the oval. The industry team will review the solicitation and ask questions of their government acquisition team, the answers to which will help them generate a competitive proposal. The acquisition team will answer the questions and revise their solicitation as needed. The industry will then submit a proposal in response to the revised solicitation and the government team will then pick the winner.

Weekly Schedule

  1. Topic: This week we will seek to understand the purpose and nature of public procurement and where public officials derive their authority. Topics will include the definition of procurement, its purpose, the role of public procurement officials and their values and principles.

  2. Topic: This week we will cover "Big A" acquisition that provides background and understanding of the 3 key systems that make up the Acquisition environment.

  3. Topic: This week we will explore several contracting fundamentals that provide the foundation for public procurement.  Topics include what makes up the elements of a legally binding contract, selection of procurement methods, and contract types.

  4. Topic: This week we will explore ethics to include conflicts of interests, gifts, and restrictions on employment, as well as procurement integrity and fraud. We will also delve into a recent major fraud scandal that recently rocked the United States Navy.

  5. Topics: This week we will explore socio-economic considerations in public procurement to include policy and statutory requirements to award contracts to various mandatory sources, to various types of small business, and to non-profit agencies that employ people with disabilities or are visually impaired.

  6. Topics: This week we will learn about the elements of a request for proposal (RFP) and various methodologies to acquire goods and services and objectively evaluate proposals.

  7. Topic: This week we will gain an understanding of performance-based contracting and the criteria for sound performance work statements and measurable work objectives. 

  8. Topic: This week we focus on the guts of a federal government solicitation.  We will define sections A-M of a formal RFP and then dive into clause definition and usage. 

  9. Topic: This week we focus on the final stages of the solicitation and communicating the need to potential bidders.  Understand evaluation criteria, how to create them and how to apply them. Understand bid documents; and understand different techniques for advertising opportunities and communicating with potential bidders. 

  10. Topic: This week we look at what happens after bids are submitted.  Understand the Govt’s bid evaluation process and how the gov conducts trade-off analysis to pick the best value bidder. 

  11. Topic: This week we look at remedies when a bidder feels they’ve been unfairly treated by the government.  A bid protest in a government contract is a challenge to the award or proposed award of a contract by an interested party. 

  12. Topic: This week we will explore legal issues that can arise after the award of a contract, and how to resolve them. We will define both dispute and claims and discuss the legal process to file a claim and then we will cover various Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) methodologies to resolve disputes short of full-blown litigation.

  13. Topic: This week we will explore contract administration and performance management and discuss actions procurement officials can take when the contractor fails to deliver.  This will include actions such as issuing Cure and Show Cause Notices and potentially terminating the contract for Convenience, Cause or Default.

  14. Topic: This week we will explore 4 innovations in public procurement that aim to capture innovation and emerging technology from industry and find ways to be more efficient across local, state and federal agencies.

Previous Instructors Have Included