3. Small Business Participation
Quick Reference Guides for Contracting Officers
Contracting Officers/Specialists get comfortable processing set aside contracts of a particular type. Some are more comfortable with the WOSB program versus SDVOSB or HUBzone and naturally gravitate towards what they know. We continually face the comment of "if you bring me an 8(a), I can make this happen quickly but I can't give you an estimate for how long it may take otherwise"
SBA has an incomplete set of practical guides for contracting officers on their website (WOSB version is attached). Instead of feeling like acquisition manuals, SBA should consider developing short check-list, infographic style guides with a common look so that contracting officers could quickly process small business set-asides of all types with the confidence that they are abiding by the FAR.