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Acquisition strategy statements are important documents for gaining and maintaining executive support for programs and projects.
The two biggest challenges in developing acquisition strategies are getting information and making sure that that information is reliable and supported by documentation. Data gathering and research is almost often painstaking, tedious, and costly. An untrained, unskilled, and/or inexperienced person tasked to do such a job, or a supervisor overseeing a study, can accumulate false and misleading information that can be detrimental to the entire project. Although it is unquantifiable, information overload can bring oversight. It can also bring repetitive and overlapping work that is both wasteful and ineffective. The key is to find personnel / employees who are willing to dig deep and commit extensively to delivering accurate information, and not just to go through the process of going through the motions. Of course, this begins with a clear objective in mind. Using the adage "begin with the end in mind" may seem like a clich, but comprehending the real outcome of the whole project even before the first step is made creates a results-oriented working environment that people can work with towards an end (although in the case of the acquisition strategy statement, this can always be revised).
Ensuring that the information is reliable is also a challenge because it becomes impractical if all entries and data need to be double checked, and if necessary triple checked for consistency. A situation that demands oversight at the early stages of solicitation and contractor selection is a potential waste of time, money and manpower. A person or persons, along with their immediate superior, who are not capable of validating information or accumulating reliable and consistent data should not be allowed to work on acquisition strategy statements. It defeats the purpose of creating strategies when the basis of decision making is faulty and or unreliable. It doesn't take a genius to know that when the numbers are wrong, the consequent decisions would most likely be wrong too.
The main word of the phrase itself says it all, i.e. strategy. This is a road map by which the modifying or describing word -- acquisition, of a technology and/or a service, is both a cost and an investment for the organization. The processes of solicitation, contractor selection, and implementation can ensure productivity and profitability if they are supported by information that guides decision making along the way and all throughout.
