I think 2 challenges to this are a) outlining challenge scope in a way that conveys actual needs, and when doing so potentially reveals procurement sensitive information, having a good fake alternative problem that can map closely to the actual needs or b) ( in trying to accomplish what Greg suggests) having a good idea of what projects …
I think 2 challenges to this are a) outlining challenge scope in a way that conveys actual needs, and when doing so potentially reveals procurement sensitive information, having a good fake alternative problem that can map closely to the actual needs or b) ( in trying to accomplish what Greg suggests) having a good idea of what projects are truly similar in or across agencies. There is a lot of not actually knowing what other similar projects might exist, and there is no resource to make sure people could identify one at the right time. Although there probably is a department that has enough information to do so, GSA ( id think).
Good points! I agree it's probably difficult to find the right thing to focus a challenge on. That said, the tech challenges that are already happening are presumably much smaller in scope than the relevant contracts/projects for which they're being used to evaluate potential vendors, so they are already using this sample as a demonstration of abilities for a wider scope. In a way, it's analogous to how many companies hiring new staff will use a take-home assignment to gauge the candidates' abilities, even though the actual scope of the job will of course be larger.
One thing that might help is having a multi-part challenge in which candidate firms can demonstrate their abilities across several different example challenges.
I think 2 challenges to this are a) outlining challenge scope in a way that conveys actual needs, and when doing so potentially reveals procurement sensitive information, having a good fake alternative problem that can map closely to the actual needs or b) ( in trying to accomplish what Greg suggests) having a good idea of what projects are truly similar in or across agencies. There is a lot of not actually knowing what other similar projects might exist, and there is no resource to make sure people could identify one at the right time. Although there probably is a department that has enough information to do so, GSA ( id think).
Good points! I agree it's probably difficult to find the right thing to focus a challenge on. That said, the tech challenges that are already happening are presumably much smaller in scope than the relevant contracts/projects for which they're being used to evaluate potential vendors, so they are already using this sample as a demonstration of abilities for a wider scope. In a way, it's analogous to how many companies hiring new staff will use a take-home assignment to gauge the candidates' abilities, even though the actual scope of the job will of course be larger.
One thing that might help is having a multi-part challenge in which candidate firms can demonstrate their abilities across several different example challenges.