Contracting Cone
FAR Based Strategies
Federal Supply Schedules
Commercial Items
Simplified Acquisitions
Contracting by Negotiation
IDIQ
Letter Contracts
Agreements
Small Business
Broad Agency Announcement
Commercial Solutions Opening
Statutory Strategies
SBIR/STTR
Other Transactions
Procurement for Experiments
R&D Agreements
Cooperative R&D Agreement
Partnership Intermediary Agreement
Technology Investment Agreement
Contract Type Matrix
After selecting the primary strategy from the contracting cone, another element of the contracting strategy is selecting the appropriate contract type. While some in Congress and DoD have advocated for mandating one contract type or another, the contract type should be based on the specific conditions for each contract. The contracting officer, in partnership with the program manager when applicable, should explore all the available contract types and assess the pros/cons of each for what they’re trying to acquire.
This table maps the contract types that are allowed for each of the major strategies outlined in the contracting cone. As you can see most contract types are allowed for most FAR based strategies.