Recompete

The incumbent usually has the advantage of knowing the work, the staff and the customer, and the disadvantage of a record that evaluators can read in CPARS. For a challenger, the recompete is the most predictable opportunity in government contracting: the current award in FPDS or USAspending shows the end date, the value, the NAICS and the incumbent, and a sources sought or presolicitation typically appears months before the contract ends.

What to check: the current contract's end date and remaining options, whether the agency has signaled a change in scope or set-aside, the incumbent's size status now (a firm that outgrew the size standard cannot bid a small business recompete), and the agency's procurement forecast entry. Build the relationship with the program office and the small business specialist before the sources sought posts.

What it is not: automatic for the incumbent. Incumbents lose recompetes to price, to a stale approach and to a CPARS record they never contested.