CMBOK

FPS Embraces Industry Standardization with Adoption of CMS and CMBOK

In September 2023, FPS announced a significant milestone in its commitment to advancing the contract management profession.

The CMS™ is recognized as the standard global language of government contracting, and the comprehensive CMBOK® collectively offers a unified framework to define, discuss, and advance contract management phases, domains, competencies, and skills.
What are the Seven Core Competencies of the CMBOK?
The CMBOK® explains the seven core competencies that serve as essential building blocks for successful contracting practitioners and leaders.
1. Leadership - Find out why adept leadership skills are necessary for Contract Management professionals at all levels.
2. Management - Discover how management competency involves setting goals to enhance individual proficiency and organizational capability.
3. Guiding Principles - Learn how to look for defining principles through all phases of the contract life cycle, no matter what each unique situation throws your way.
4. Pre-Award - Familiarize yourself with the first phase of the contract life cycle, when buyers produce solicitations and sellers prepare offers.
5. Award - Let us walk you through this often complicated phase, in which the buyer and seller collaborate to produce a contract.
6. Post-Award - Dig into contract execution and completion — the contract administration process.
7. Learn - Continuing education ensures Contract Managers’ commitment to professional development and lifelong learning.
FPS has aligned its training, curriculum, and solution offerings to the CMS and CMBOK

This article appeared in the January 2024 issue of Contract Management magazine, published by the National Contract Management Association. Used with permission.

As a skilled profession, contract management has developed complex terminology over many years. Now NCMA's common language is aligning this terminology and early adopters are elevating the future of the profession.
By Samantha Williams

As contract management professionals, we are used to being told we speak a different language. The truth is that within our language, subdialects vary by industry, agency, and even within the same organization. This is a challenge for buyers and sellers who need to communicate clearly and for professionals seeking to define their skill sets.

Despite the seeming language barrier, there is a common language for contract management that is gaining momentum. NCMA’s American National Standards Institute (ANSI) (1) -approved Contract Management Standard™ (CMS™) and NCMA’s Contract Management Body of Knowledge (CMBOK®) define the guiding principles, domains, phases, competencies, and processes of our day-to-day work and give us all common terminology to describe what we do.

Early Adopters
Several pioneering organizations have done the early work of adopting the common language by aligning their hiring, training, curriculum, or service offerings to the CMS™ and CMBOK® and signing a memorandum of understanding with NCMA to formalize and publicize this commitment. [Federal Publications Seminars is one of these early adopters.]

Their willingness to stand up and say, “Yes, a common language matters,” is leading us all boldly to a bright future for our skilled profession.

Read the entire article