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Desk reference

Statements of objectives, performance work statements, and offeror-developed PWS

Requirements instruments when the agency wants competing methods and measurable results rather than a prescriptive staffing recipe.

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Statement of objectives (SOO) to performance work statement (PWS)

FAR 37.602 favors required results and measurable performance standards. A Government (), from which each offeror develops a proposed , must include purpose, or mission, period and place of performance, background, performance objectives, and operating constraints. A detailed that prescribes each labor step is a poorer fit when the agency wants competing methods. Reach for SOO-to-PWS when advising requirements teams before the hardens: and measures first, methods second.

Watch for

A SOO is not the complete contract work statement by itself. Omitting performance standards does not create useful flexibility. “Staffing volume” as the primary reward is not outcome shaping.

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Offeror-developed performance work statement

Under FAR 37.602, offerors use the Government SOO to develop a proposed PWS. The SOO does not become part of the contract. The PWS should express required results and measurable performance standards — the contractual baseline the offeror will live under after award. Write and price to the PWS you are proposing; trace it to the SOO’s objectives without treating the SOO as already contractual.

Watch for

Don't assume the SOO automatically becomes the complete contract work statement, replace it with a staffing that omits standards, or expect the to convert the SOO into each offeror’s technical proposal after award as a substitute for a PWS.

Further reading