LensLux
Perspectives on acquisition, project management, and building a practice that works, from NovaLux Strategies.
- Your CLP Period Restarted in May 2026 The Federal Acquisition Certification continuous learning period ended 04-30-2026 and a new one began. How many points you owe depends on which certification you have.
- Scope Creep Starts as a Favor The first out-of-scope task looks like a small favor. Naming it early keeps a healthy contract from turning into a loss.
- Writing a Comment on the FAR Overhaul Comments on the second batch of Revolutionary FAR Overhaul rules close 10-19-2026. Four cases are open and anyone can file.
- Translating Regulation Into a Decision The skill that matters is translating dense regulation into a decision someone can act on Monday morning.
- COR Authority, Limits, and Records A Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) works from a designation letter written for one contract. The FAR states what that letter has to include.
- The Mentorship Myth: What Accelerates Careers “Find a good mentor” is incomplete advice. What helps a career grow is self-direction and a network of peers.
- COR File Checklist The three items FAR 1.604 requires, what I add to them, and the standard your file gets measured against when someone reviews it.
- What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Contracting Officers The habits that make a good contracting officer (structure, risk pricing, and documentation) are the same ones I wish every new entrepreneur had on day one.
- Managing vs. Leading a Contract A COR whose contract never missed a deliverable in three years still felt like her team was losing ground.
- Pricing Your Expertise How I set my consulting rate from the value of the outcome to the client.
- Why I Teach Process as Well as Policy Policies change. The skill of reading a regulation, tracing its intent, and applying it stays useful when they do.
- The Requirement Is the Deliverable When a contract keeps generating modifications, the requirement is a good place to look first.
- First Principles for Building a Consulting Practice Another consultant told me I needed a bigger pipeline and should bid on everything. I focused on the work I know best and the clients who need it.
- The Art of the Strategic No Bid/no-bid is a capture discipline. I use the same three questions for my decisions outside capture.
- Green Is Not a Status A status color is a judgment someone made. Three questions that show what a green status leaves out.
- When a Student Says “That's Not How We Do It” When a student says the process is different at their agency, I ask why and use the answer in the lesson.
- Leading Without a Title Credibility and character give you authority. You can build both before anyone offers you a position.
- How to Read and Comment on the First FAR Overhaul Proposed Rules The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul moved from policy talk to proposed rules. This post explains how to read them and prepare a comment.
- Federal Q4 Starts Now: What the Next 107 Days Mean for Your Pipeline In practice, June is the start of federal year-end.
- The 06-15-2026 Fixed-Price Guidance: What Contracting Officers and Contractors Can Do Executive Order 14402 makes fixed-price the default contract type. The Office of Management and Budget guidance on it was due 06-15-2026. Contracting officers and contractors can start preparing now.
- The Fixed-Price Default Is a Positioning Problem Executive Order 14402, signed 04-30-2026, made fixed-price the federal default. This post explains three changes to capture planning that follow from it.
- Why September Wins Are Decided in May The federal year-end awards that close in September are set up in the spring. A 135-day plan for positioning now.
- Keeping Defensible COR Files During the FAR Overhaul Three documentation habits that keep a COR file defensible under any version of the FAR.
- Why Federal Capture Is Decided in April The Q4 awards you want can be decided a full fiscal quarter before the RFP is released.
- From Rules to Judgment: What the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Means for Contracting Officers and CORs Executive Order 14275 (signed 04-15-2025) started a rewrite of the FAR that gives contracting officers more discretion and asks them to document their judgment.
- The FAR Is Being Rewritten: Five Steps to Prepare The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul is changing federal acquisition rules in stages. I explain what changed, the thresholds to verify, and five steps to prepare.
- Stop Underestimating Your CORs What CORs need from their contracting offices: templates, invoice review training, quarterly check-ins, and a clear process for contract modifications.
- Back in the Classroom: My First Class of 2026 FPM 133 for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: what it felt like to be back in front of a classroom.
- The Myth of “Ready” I started NovaLux before I felt ready and learned by implementing, assessing, and refining as I went.
- Why I Started NovaLux with First Principles Questioning inherited assumptions in acquisition and project management.