FAR 11.002—Policy.
Plain-English Summary
FAR 11.002 is the government’s core policy section for writing acquisition requirements. It covers how agencies must describe needs using market research, how to promote full and open competition or maximum practicable competition under simplified acquisition procedures, and how to avoid unnecessary restrictive provisions. It also directs agencies to frame requirements in functional, performance, or essential physical terms; to favor commercial products, commercial services, and nondevelopmental items; and to require prime contractors and subcontractors to flow those commercial solutions down where appropriate. In addition, it addresses use of the metric system, early industry input on requirements and specifications, sustainable acquisition and the Green Procurement Compilation, use of targets versus fixed performance levels, Section 508 ICT accessibility requirements, IPv6/USGv6 requirements for Internet Protocol acquisitions, and limits on telecommuting prohibitions in solicitations. In practice, this section shapes the front end of the acquisition process: it influences what gets written into the solicitation, how restrictive the competition will be, and whether the requirement is aligned with statutory policy, commercial practices, sustainability goals, accessibility obligations, and modern IT standards.
Key Rules
Use market research
Agencies must use market research to define needs in a way that promotes full and open competition, or maximum practicable competition when using simplified acquisition procedures. Requirements should include restrictive provisions only when necessary to meet the agency’s needs or when authorized by law.
Write functional requirements
To the maximum extent practicable, requirements should be stated in terms of functions to be performed, performance required, or essential physical characteristics. This helps avoid over-specification and supports broader competition and better solutions.
Prefer commercial solutions
Agencies must structure requirements to enable and encourage offers of commercial products, commercial services, and, when commercial items are not suitable, nondevelopmental items. Agencies should also give those products and services a fair opportunity to compete and require commercial components to be incorporated by prime contractors and subcontractors where appropriate.
Use metric where practical
Agencies are required to use the metric system in acquisitions unless doing so is impracticable or would cause significant inefficiencies or loss of U.S. market opportunities. Requiring activities must provide internal guidance for applying this policy when developing requirements.
Invite industry input early
To the extent practicable and consistent with responsibility determinations, potential offerors should be allowed to comment on requirements and recommend tailoring of requirements documents and alternative approaches. Specifications and standards should initially be used as guidance, with final tailoring decisions made during design and development.
Procure sustainable products
Agencies must procure sustainable products and services under subpart 23.1 and, unless impracticable or an exception applies, incorporate sustainability considerations when developing or revising specifications, describing requirements, and developing source-selection factors. Agencies should consult the Green Procurement Compilation and incorporate required standards, specifications, or ecolabels identified there.
Allow performance targets
Some or all performance levels or performance specifications in a solicitation may be identified as targets rather than fixed or minimum requirements. This gives agencies flexibility to encourage innovation and tradeoffs where appropriate.
Address ICT accessibility
For Section 508 acquisitions, the contracting officer must obtain requirement documents from the requiring activity that identify user needs for people with disabilities, applicable ICT accessibility standards, and any standards that cannot be met because of an exception or exemption.
Include USGv6 references
When acquiring information technology using Internet Protocol, requirement documents must include the appropriate technical capabilities from the USGv6 Profile and the corresponding declarations of conformance, unless the agency CIO waives the requirement. Applicability must align with the agency’s enterprise architecture.
Limit telecommuting bans
Agencies may not include a solicitation requirement that prohibits an offeror from allowing employees to telecommute unless the contracting officer makes a written determination under FAR 7.108(a).
Responsibilities
Agency
Use market research to define needs, promote competition, avoid unnecessary restrictions, and incorporate commercial, sustainable, accessibility, metric, and IPv6-related policies into acquisition planning and requirements development.
Requiring Activity
Develop the requirement in functional or performance terms where practicable, provide guidance on metric use, identify ICT accessibility needs and standards, and support early industry input and tailoring of specifications and standards.
Contracting Officer
Obtain requirement documents from the requiring activity, ensure the solicitation reflects applicable policy requirements, avoid prohibited telecommuting restrictions absent a written determination, and verify that accessibility, IPv6, sustainability, and competition requirements are addressed as applicable.
Acquisition Officials
State requirements in functional, performance, or essential physical terms; encourage commercial and nondevelopmental solutions; and modify requirements when needed so commercial products or services can meet the agency’s needs.
Prime Contractors and Subcontractors
Where required by the agency contract, incorporate commercial products, commercial services, or nondevelopmental items as components of items supplied to the government.
Agency Chief Information Officer
May waive the USGv6 requirement for acquisitions using Internet Protocol when appropriate.
Potential Offerors
May comment on agency requirements and recommend tailoring of requirements documents and alternative approaches when the agency permits and when consistent with responsibility rules.
Practical Implications
This section is a major driver of solicitation quality: poorly written requirements can unnecessarily narrow competition, exclude commercial solutions, or create avoidable protest risk.
Contracting officers should check early whether the requirement is being written too specifically, because detailed design prescriptions can lock the agency into a solution before market research and industry input are complete.
Sustainability, Section 508 accessibility, and IPv6 are not afterthoughts; they must be built into the requirement documents and source-selection planning when applicable.
The telecommuting restriction rule is easy to miss: a blanket ban in a solicitation is not allowed unless the contracting officer documents the required FAR 7.108(a) determination.
For IT buys, agencies should confirm whether USGv6 applies and whether the agency CIO has waived it; for accessibility, the requirement package must clearly identify standards and any exceptions or exemptions.
Using the metric system, commercial item descriptions, and performance-based language can improve competition and reduce lifecycle cost, but only if the requiring activity and contracting officer coordinate early on the requirement structure.
Official Regulatory Text
(a) In fulfilling requirements of 10 U.S.C. 3206(a) , 10 U.S.C. 3453 , 41 U.S.C. 3306(a) , and 41 U.S.C.3307 , agencies shall- (1) Specify needs using market research in a manner designed to- (i) Promote full and open competition (see part 6 ), or maximum practicable competition when using simplified acquisition procedures, with due regard to the nature of the supplies or services to be acquired; and (ii) Only include restrictive provisions or conditions to the extent necessary to satisfy the needs of the agency or as authorized by law. (2) To the maximum extent practicable, ensure that acquisition officials- (i) State requirements with respect to an acquisition of supplies or services in terms of- (A) Functions to be performed; (B) Performance required; or (C) Essential physical characteristics; (ii) Define requirements in terms that enable and encourage offerors to supply commercial products or commercial services or, to the extent that commercial products suitable to meet the agency’s needs are not available, nondevelopmental items, in response to the agency solicitations; (iii) Provide offerors of commercial products, commercial services, and nondevelopmental items an opportunity to compete in any acquisition to fill such requirements; (iv) Require prime contractors and subcontractors at all tiers under the agency contracts to incorporate commercial products, commercial services, or nondevelopmental items as components of items supplied to the agency; and (v) Modify requirements in appropriate cases to ensure that the requirements can be met by commercial products or commercial services or, to the extent that commercial products suitable to meet the agency’s needs are not available, nondevelopmental items. (b) The Metric Conversion Act of 1975, as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 ( 15 U.S.C. 205a , et seq. ), designates the metric system of measurement as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce, and it requires that each agency use the metric system of measurement in its acquisitions, except to the extent that such use is impracticable or is likely to cause significant inefficiencies or loss of markets to United States firms. Requiring activities are responsible for establishing guidance implementing this policy in formulating their requirements for acquisitions. (c) To the extent practicable and consistent with subpart 9.5 , potential offerors should be given an opportunity to comment on agency requirements or to recommend application and tailoring of requirements documents and alternative approaches. Requiring agencies should apply specifications, standards, and related documents initially for guidance only, making final decisions on the application and tailoring of these documents as a product of the design and development process. Requiring agencies should not dictate detailed design solutions prematurely (see 7.101 and 7.105 (a)(8)). (d) (1) Agencies shall procure sustainable products and services (as defined in 2.101 ) in accordance with subpart 23.1 ). (2) Unless it is not practicable (see 23.104 (a)) or an exception or exemption applies (see 23.105 and 23.106 , respectively), agencies shall incorporate the use of sustainable products and services when— (i) Developing, reviewing, or revising Federal and military specifications, product descriptions (including commercial item descriptions) and standards; (ii) Describing Government requirements for products and services; and (iii) Developing source-selection factors. (3) The Green Procurement Compilation (GPC) available at https://sftool.gov/greenprocurement provides a comprehensive list of sustainable products and services and other related sustainable acquisition guidance. Agencies should— (i) Consult the GPC when determining which purchasing programs apply to a specific product or service; and (ii) Incorporate into agency requirements any required standards, specifications, or ecolabels identified in the GPC for a specific product or service. (e) Some or all of the performance levels or performance specifications in a solicitation may be identified as targets rather than as fixed or minimum requirements. (f) In accordance with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ( 29 U.S.C. 794d ), the contracting officer shall obtain from the requiring activity the requirement documents, which must identify— (1) The needs of current and future users with disabilities to determine how– (i) Users with disabilities will perform the functions supported by the information and communication technology (ICT); (ii) The ICT will be developed, installed, configured and maintained to support users with disabilities; (2) The applicable ICT accessibility standards (see subpart 39.2 ); and (3) Any ICT accessibility standards that cannot be met due to an exception or an exemption for any component or portion of the product (see 7.105 (b)(5)(iv), 39.204 , and 39.205 ). (g) Unless the agency Chief Information Officer waives the requirement, when acquiring information technology using Internet Protocol, the requirements documents must include reference to the appropriate technical capabilities defined in the USGv6 Profile (NIST Special Publication 500-267) and the corresponding declarations of conformance defined in the USGv6 Test Program. The applicability of IPv6 to agency networks, infrastructure, and applications specific to individual acquisitions will be in accordance with the agency's Enterprise Architecture (see OMB Memorandum M-05-22 dated August 2, 2005). (h) Agencies shall not include in a solicitation a requirement that prohibits an offeror from permitting its employees to telecommute unless the contracting officer executes a written determination in accordance with FAR 7.108 (a).