U.S. Defense & Government Acquisition
How the Department of Defense and federal agencies buy, from requirements and budgeting to contracting, program management, and oversight. Courses serve program offices, industry, and everyone who works with them.
Allied Government and Direct Commercial Sales
Covers how U.S. companies sell defense articles and services directly to foreign governments through Direct Commercial Sales, including licensing, contracting, and offset considerations. Learners compare DCS with government-to-government channels and learn when each path fits a given product and customer.
Bid Protests
Explains how protests work at the agency level, the Government Accountability Office, and the Court of Federal Claims, including timeliness rules and standards of review. Learners assess when a protest is worth filing, how to defend an award as an intervenor, and how jurisdiction applies to OT awards.
Building a Compliance Program at a Growing Company
Walks through the policies, roles, training, and internal controls a company needs as its government business scales. Learners build a right-sized program that covers ethics, mandatory disclosure, and hotline obligations under the FAR.
Buying AI - Evaluating Vendors and Model Claims
Covers how government buyers define AI requirements, structure solicitations, and evaluate vendor claims about model performance, data, and security. Learners practice testing claims against evidence and writing contract terms that preserve access to models, data, and evaluation results.
Capture Management and Proposal Fundamentals
Introduces the capture lifecycle from opportunity identification through bid/no-bid decisions, customer shaping, and proposal development. Learners learn how to read a solicitation, build a compliant proposal outline, and write to the evaluation criteria.
Cloud and SaaS Contracting
Examines how agencies buy cloud services and commercial software, including FedRAMP and DoD cloud security requirements, licensing models, and consumption-based pricing. Learners work through the terms that commonly cause friction, such as commercial license agreements, data location, and termination rights.
Color of Money
Explains appropriation categories such as RDT&E, Procurement, and O&M, along with the purpose, time, and amount rules that govern their use. Learners learn how the type of funding shapes what a program can buy and when, and how misuse can lead to Antideficiency Act violations.
Commercial Buying Under FAR Part 12
Covers the definition of a commercial product or service, the commerciality determination, and the streamlined procedures FAR Part 12 allows. Learners learn how commercial status affects terms and conditions, pricing data requirements, and data rights.
Commercial Solutions Openings and Tech Scouting
Explains how Commercial Solutions Openings work as a competitive procedure for innovative solutions and how they connect to follow-on production. Learners also learn how government tech scouting organizations find and assess emerging companies.
Congress and the Budget
Explains how authorizing and appropriations committees shape defense programs through marks, report language, and plus-ups. Learners learn how to engage congressional staff appropriately and track the budget from the President’s request to enactment.
Contract Administration and Performance After Award
Covers what happens after award, including kickoff, deliverables, modifications, invoicing, and working with the contracting officer and COR. Learners learn to manage changes, document performance, and handle disputes and closeout.
Contract Readiness - SAM, Reps and Certs, and Business Infrastructure
Covers the foundational steps a company takes before it can receive a federal award, including SAM registration, UEI and CAGE codes, and representations and certifications. Learners set up the accounting, security, and administrative infrastructure that later contracts will require.
Contract Types, Incentives, and Risk Allocation
Compares fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, time-and-materials, and incentive contract types and how each allocates cost and performance risk. Learners learn to assess pricing exposure under each type and to negotiate incentive structures that fit their business.
Data Rights, IP Strategy, and Modular Open Systems
Covers the DFARS technical data and software rights framework, how rights are asserted and marked, and how Modular Open Systems Approaches affect interface ownership. Learners build an IP strategy that protects commercial value and meets government sustainment and competition needs.
DCAA-Facing Compliance - Timekeeping, Audits, and Business Systems
Explains what the Defense Contract Audit Agency reviews, including timekeeping, incurred cost submissions, and contractor business systems. Learners learn how to prepare for audits and maintain systems that hold up to scrutiny.
Divestments
Examines how the Department of Defense retires legacy systems and programs to free resources for new capabilities. Learners study the budgetary, political, and industrial-base obstacles to divestment and the approaches that have helped it succeed.
Dual-Use Commercialization - One Product, Two Markets
Covers how companies build a single product for commercial and government customers, including roadmap, pricing, and go-to-market decisions. Learners assess tradeoffs between the two markets in sales cycles, compliance costs, and capital requirements.
Ethics and Risk Management in Accelerated Acquisition
Examines the ethical and legal risks that arise when acquisition moves faster, including conflicts of interest, procurement integrity, and industry engagement. Learners learn to identify these risks early and apply controls that preserve speed.
Export Controls
Covers ITAR and EAR, including jurisdiction and classification, licensing, deemed exports, and compliance programs. Learners learn how export controls affect hiring, foreign partnerships, and product design at startups and growing companies.
Facility Clearances and Program Protection for New Entrants
Explains the facility clearance process under the NISPOM, personnel clearances, and FOCI mitigation for companies new to classified work. Learners also learn how program protection planning safeguards critical technology on their programs.
Foreign Military Sales and Security Cooperation
Explains how Foreign Military Sales works as a government-to-government process administered by DSCA, from letter of request through case execution. Learners learn industry’s role in FMS cases and how security cooperation programs relate to sales.
GSA Schedules and Governmentwide Vehicles
Covers the GSA Multiple Award Schedule and governmentwide acquisition contracts, including how to get on them and how agencies order from them. Learners weigh the cost of obtaining and maintaining a vehicle against the sales it can support.
Negotiating OTAs
Covers the statutory authority for Other Transaction agreements for prototypes and follow-on production and the terms most often negotiated. Learners practice negotiating IP, payment milestones, cost sharing, and follow-on production provisions.
OT Consortia CRADAs and Lab Authorities
Explains how consortium-based OT awards work and how companies join and compete within them. Learners also cover CRADAs, partnership intermediary agreements, and other authorities for working with government laboratories.
Portfolio Acquisition Management
Covers how the Department manages related programs as portfolios, with trade space across capabilities and funding. Learners learn how portfolio management changes requirements, budgeting, and industry engagement.
PPBE - How Defense Money Actually Moves
Walks through the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution process and the documents it produces, such as the POM and budget justification books. Learners learn where decisions are made and when industry input can influence them.
Pricing, Indirect Rates, and Cost Accounting Basics
Covers building a price for government work, including direct costs, indirect rate pools, fee, and cost accounting basics. Learners learn how FAR Part 31 cost principles and truthful cost or pricing data requirements affect pricing and compliance.
Product Support and Sustainment
Covers life-cycle sustainment planning, product support strategies, and performance-based logistics. Learners learn how sustainment decisions made early in a program drive long-term cost and readiness.
Requirements without JCIDS
Examines ways to define and validate requirements outside the traditional Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, including software and rapid pathways. Learners practice writing problem statements and capability needs that support fast, iterative acquisition.
Risk Based Test and Evaluation
Explains how to plan test and evaluation around mission and technical risk. Learners design test strategies that focus resources on the highest-risk areas and integrate contractor, developmental, and operational testing.
SBIRs and Acquisition Paths After SBIRs
Covers the SBIR and STTR programs, their phases, and the proposal process, along with Phase III and other routes to production. Learners plan how to move from an initial award to sustained government revenue.
Selling to Civilian Federal Agencies
Covers the civilian agency market, including agencies such as DHS, HHS, and DOE, their buying behavior, budgets, and preferred vehicles. Learners learn how to adapt a defense-focused go-to-market approach for civilian customers.
Small Business Programs Beyond SBIR
Covers set-asides and socioeconomic programs such as 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, and SDVOSB, along with size standards and the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program. Learners assess eligibility and learn how these programs affect teaming and growth.
State, Local, and Education Markets
Introduces state, local, and education markets, including cooperative purchasing contracts and state procurement rules. Learners compare these markets with federal sales and identify where dual-use products fit.
Surviving Government Test and Evaluation
Prepares companies for government test events, from test planning and readiness reviews through reporting. Learners learn how to anticipate evaluator expectations, manage test failures, and use results to support production decisions.
The Innovation Adoption Kit
Presents practical tools and templates for moving new technology into government use, from problem framing through transition. Learners apply the kit to plan adoption of a specific capability in their organization.
The Software Acquisition Pathway
Covers the Software Acquisition Pathway established under DoDI 5000.87, including its planning and execution phases, value assessments, and continuous delivery. Learners learn how programs use the pathway and what it requires of software vendors.
Venture Capital and Private Equity in the DIB
Examines how venture capital and private equity invest in defense companies, including fund structures, valuation drivers, and exit paths. Learners learn how investor expectations interact with government contracting timelines and FOCI concerns.
Working with Non-Traditional Companies
Covers how government organizations engage companies new to defense work, including the statutory definition of a nontraditional defense contractor. Learners learn practices that lower barriers to entry and keep these companies in the market.
Working with Primes - Flow-Downs, Teaming, and Subcontract Management
Covers teaming agreements, subcontracts, and the FAR and DFARS clauses that flow down from prime contracts. Learners learn to negotiate terms, manage subcontract compliance, and build productive relationships with primes.