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DoD asks court for 120 days to’reconsider’ JEDI award

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Amazon’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) over its decision to award a major cloud contract for Microsoft has taken a new turn. The DoD is asking a federal court to allow it to reconsider its initial decision.
Thursday’s motion by the DoD to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims sought “120 days to review certain aspects of the challenged agency decision.”
The DoD will reevaluate data storage proposals submitted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft as part of the original bidding process to the DoD’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract. After receiving bids from several cloud vendors, AWS was the front-runner. The DoD awarded the $10 billion JEDI contract to Microsoft last fall.
Amazon quickly filed suit to contest the DoD’s decision. In February, Judge Patricia Elaine Campbell Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a temporary halt to work on the JEDI contract as the case progresses through court.
According to court documents, the core of Amazon’s challenge is that the DoD “improperly evaluated” Microsoft’s proposal for a “highly available” data storage solution. Amazon claims that although Microsoft’s storage solution was more affordable than Amazon’s, it didn’t meet the DoD’s technical requirements and should have disqualified Microsoft.
Campbell-Smith granted the injunction and stated that Amazon “likely to prove that [the DoD] erred.” She stated that Microsoft’s proposal being in the running rather than disqualifying it had likely had a negative effect on the price evaluation of Amazon’s data solution, which materially hurt its chances of winning.
The DoD is asking for the court to review its decision on the companies’ data storage solutions. It also wants to adjust the terms it solicited proposals under and “accept limited revisions” from Amazon or Microsoft. The DoD also stated that it wanted to reexamine its assessment of the offerors’ online marketplace offerings.
The two companies made separate statements to CNBC, stating that they supported the DoD’s request for a review of its process. Amazon spokesperson stated that they were pleased that the DoD acknowledged the’substantial’ and legitimate issues that had affected the JEDI award decision and that corrective action was necessary.
Microsoft stated that it believed the Department of Defense had made the right decision when it awarded the contract. We support their decision to reconsider a few factors because it is likely to be the fastest way to resolve all problems and provide the necessary modern technology to our troops.
One industry watcher believes that the DoD’s motion could lead to the JEDI contract being split between Amazon and Microsoft. In a statement to Investor’s Business Daily, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said, “While initially this was a single-source contract, we believe the writing is on the wall that the Pentagon needs to likely break up this contract in order to move it along and start the procurement process given how critical the JEDI deal is to the overall DOD and longer-term strategic global military operations/infrastructure.”

Ferdinand
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What is a WBS? Bill asked a great question about a WBS and how it can be used to plan project scope. Josh, please clarify. I am only at chapter 7, so if you have any questions, please forgive me. So far, it seems like the WBS is different than the schedule. Is this a point you’re making? Or am I misunderstanding it? I thought the WBS was the basis of the schedule. RegardsBill Bill, you are correct. The WBS is separate from the schedule. You should be able to focus only on the deliverables when creating the WBS. This is true regardless of the time. (I hesitate to recommend phase-based deliverables in general but I recognize that some programs may use this structure) I also recommend that you do not use staff roles to organize your work breakdown structure. Next, you break down the deliverables into tasks. The tasks will be what you use to create your schedule. Your schedule will most likely be influenced at least partially by the WBS structure. But not always. My version of a WBS is called a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) in the PRINCE2 world. When I speak of task decomposition in a Base of Estimate (BOE), they use the same terminology for what they call a WBS. Although we do the same thing, the terminology can be confusing if you try to translate across the pond. I recommend that you never open a scheduling tool without first completing the necessary steps.
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What is a WBS? Bill asked a great question about a WBS and how it can be used to plan project scope. Josh, please clarify. I am only at chapter 7, so if you have any questions, please forgive me. So far, it seems like the WBS is different than the schedule. Is this a point you’re making? Or am I misunderstanding it? I thought the WBS was the basis of the schedule. RegardsBill Bill, you are correct. The WBS is separate from the schedule. You should be able to focus only on the deliverables when creating the WBS. This is true regardless of the time. (I hesitate to recommend phase-based deliverables in general but I recognize that some programs may use this structure) I also recommend that you do not use staff roles to organize your work breakdown structure. Next, you break down the deliverables into tasks. The tasks will be what you use to create your schedule. Your schedule will most likely be influenced at least partially by the WBS structure. But not always. My version of a WBS is called a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) in the PRINCE2 world. When I speak of task decomposition in a Base of Estimate (BOE), they use the same terminology for what they call a WBS. Although we do the same thing, the terminology can be confusing if you try to translate across the pond. I recommend that you never open a scheduling tool without first completing the necessary steps.
What is a Project Coordinator? Scott was thinking about the role of Project Coordinator recently. He replied to one my Project Management Career Coaching questions with this: Josh, I am currently attending school for Project Management and have really enjoyed your daily emails. I am currently a Manufacturing Supervisor in a small company. After graduation, my goal is to be a full-fledged Project Manager. I was interested in your recent post about changing industries and how you were successful in landing a job as Project Coordinator. I have been looking for a company for some time, but I don’t have any way to get to know the workers. It is a different industry than mine and I don’t have any connections to the company. I discovered that they have two positions available for Project Coordinators. I am trying decide if it’s worth taking the risk and making the move now rather than after I graduate. It is difficult to gain experience in managing small projects in the position I am currently in. It’s a small company, so I have to accept the fact that I can’t advance in my career unless I leave or wait for someone else to retire. I am asking you this question: Do you think that a job as a Project Coordinator is a good starting place for an aspiring Project Manager. Or would you prefer to stay at the same place for another year and gain more experience in employee management? I know you are busy, so I appreciate any advice you can offer me. Scott, thank you for your email! What is the role of a Project Coordinator? Project coordinator roles are not the same in all organizations. This is why I don’t believe it fits into all strategic career paths. It depends on the industry and the organization, but as a general rule, a role in project coordination is a good way to get into project management. It indicates that the organization is mature in managing projects. It will also give you an opportunity to experience the ‘world of managing projects’ in that organization. If my experience is any indication, you’ll be right there. Building Relationships – I discuss how to get connected to people in the industry or company. If you approach it with respect and tact, you can use LinkedIn to reach out to these people. LinkedIn is a great networking tool that can bring you face-to-face connections and allow you to make friends and develop relationships over time. It’s not a quick process, but it’s possible to expect great results. It will take some time. It won’t take forever, but it won’t stop. It’s ongoing. Some people find themselves in small companies and want to go into a larger company. Once you have the experience and knowledge from a larger company, it is sometimes best to stay there. However, if you want to return to a smaller company, you can bring your expertise and help grow it. If I was you, I would interview for the position of Project Coordinator, even if it wasn’t something I wanted to do. This will give you valuable experience in interviewing and allow you to ask great questions about the company’s project management. It can make a huge difference in your chances of getting hired.
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What is a Project Coordinator? Scott was thinking about the role of Project Coordinator recently. He replied to one my Project Management Career Coaching questions with this: Josh, I am currently attending school for Project Management and have really enjoyed your daily emails. I am currently a Manufacturing Supervisor in a small company. After graduation, my goal is to be a full-fledged Project Manager. I was interested in your recent post about changing industries and how you were successful in landing a job as Project Coordinator. I have been looking for a company for some time, but I don’t have any way to get to know the workers. It is a different industry than mine and I don’t have any connections to the company. I discovered that they have two positions available for Project Coordinators. I am trying decide if it’s worth taking the risk and making the move now rather than after I graduate. It is difficult to gain experience in managing small projects in the position I am currently in. It’s a small company, so I have to accept the fact that I can’t advance in my career unless I leave or wait for someone else to retire. I am asking you this question: Do you think that a job as a Project Coordinator is a good starting place for an aspiring Project Manager. Or would you prefer to stay at the same place for another year and gain more experience in employee management? I know you are busy, so I appreciate any advice you can offer me. Scott, thank you for your email! What is the role of a Project Coordinator? Project coordinator roles are not the same in all organizations. This is why I don’t believe it fits into all strategic career paths. It depends on the industry and the organization, but as a general rule, a role in project coordination is a good way to get into project management. It indicates that the organization is mature in managing projects. It will also give you an opportunity to experience the ‘world of managing projects’ in that organization. If my experience is any indication, you’ll be right there. Building Relationships – I discuss how to get connected to people in the industry or company. If you approach it with respect and tact, you can use LinkedIn to reach out to these people. LinkedIn is a great networking tool that can bring you face-to-face connections and allow you to make friends and develop relationships over time. It’s not a quick process, but it’s possible to expect great results. It will take some time. It won’t take forever, but it won’t stop. It’s ongoing. Some people find themselves in small companies and want to go into a larger company. Once you have the experience and knowledge from a larger company, it is sometimes best to stay there. However, if you want to return to a smaller company, you can bring your expertise and help grow it. If I was you, I would interview for the position of Project Coordinator, even if it wasn’t something I wanted to do. This will give you valuable experience in interviewing and allow you to ask great questions about the company’s project management. It can make a huge difference in your chances of getting hired.
Project Failure: We are at It Again Serendipity happens. I replied to a student Inside pmStudent eLearning with what turned to be an article about project success and failure. Shim wrote, “Projects failure rates?” a few days later. The conventional wisdom is wrong! His blog is amazing. I began leaving comments, and it quickly became one of those comments that should be its own post. Chaos I mean the reports that various organizations have on project failure rates. Shim outlined the following in his post:
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Project Failure: We are at It Again Serendipity happens. I replied to a student Inside pmStudent eLearning with what turned to be an article about project success and failure. Shim wrote, “Projects failure rates?” a few days later. The conventional wisdom is wrong! His blog is amazing. I began leaving comments, and it quickly became one of those comments that should be its own post. Chaos I mean the reports that various organizations have on project failure rates. Shim outlined the following in his post:
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