FAR 7.103—Agency-head responsibilities.
Plain-English Summary
FAR 7.103 tells the agency head, or a designated official, to set up the internal procedures that make acquisition planning work across the agency. This section covers the full range of planning responsibilities: promoting full and open competition; encouraging commercial products, commercial services, and nondevelopmental items; making sure planners define needs and specifications properly; documenting contract type selection; setting planning thresholds and levels of formality; aligning statements of work with performance outcomes and cost estimates; deciding when plans are written and how they are organized; designating planners; reviewing and approving plans; setting criteria for design-to-cost and life-cycle-cost methods; allowing waivers for urgent acquisitions; requiring pre-award review of acquisition history and product descriptions; incorporating the metric system; complying with sustainable acquisition and sustainable federal building requirements; addressing environmental compliance for contractor-operated Government facilities and vehicles; ensuring ICT accessibility; making the required advisory and assistance services determination; preventing inherently governmental functions from being contracted out; using lessons learned and performance-based methods; and structuring requirements to support small business participation and avoid unjustified bundling. In practice, this section is the agency’s roadmap for how acquisition planning must be organized before a solicitation is issued or a contract is awarded. It matters because many downstream procurement problems—poor competition, weak requirements, bad contract type choices, inaccessible products, sustainability failures, small business barriers, or inadequate oversight—usually start with weak planning. For contractors, it signals the policy environment agencies must follow when shaping requirements and solicitations. For contracting officers and planners, it is a checklist of agency-level controls that should be reflected in acquisition plans, approvals, and file documentation.
Key Rules
Set agency planning procedures
The agency head or designee must prescribe procedures for acquisition planning. These procedures are the internal rules that implement FAR part 7 and guide how acquisitions are planned, reviewed, and approved.
Promote competition
Agencies must plan acquisitions to provide full and open competition when required, or the maximum practicable competition when full and open competition is not available. Planners must consider the nature of the supplies and services being acquired when designing the competition approach.
Favor commercial solutions
Agencies must encourage offerors to provide commercial products, commercial services, or, when those are not suitable, nondevelopmental items. This supports use of market-ready solutions instead of unnecessary development or custom work.
Define needs and specifications properly
Acquisition planners must specify needs, develop specifications, and structure solicitations to promote competition. The requirement is not just to describe what the agency wants, but to do so in a way that does not unnecessarily restrict competition.
Document contract type selection
The file must support the choice of contract type under FAR subpart 16.1. Agencies must ensure planners explain why the selected contract type fits the risk, requirements, and acquisition strategy.
Use more formality as risk rises
Agencies must set thresholds for when planning becomes more detailed and formal as acquisitions become more complex or costly. Written acquisition plans are required for cost-reimbursement and other high-risk contracts other than firm-fixed-price contracts, and may also be required for firm-fixed-price contracts when appropriate.
Align work statements and cost
Statements of work must be closely aligned with performance outcomes and cost estimates. This helps ensure the requirement is measurable, realistic, and tied to the agency’s budget and expected results.
Choose plan structure
Plans may be written on a systems basis, an individual contract basis, or an individual order basis, depending on the acquisition. Agencies may also establish standard plan formats to fit their needs.
Apply planning principles broadly
The principles of acquisition planning apply even when a written plan is not required. Agencies cannot treat planning as optional simply because a formal written plan is not mandated.
Designate planners and approve plans
Agencies must designate planners and review and approve acquisition plans and revisions for compliance with FAR requirements, including FAR 7.104 and part 16. For other than firm-fixed-price contracts, the plan must be approved and signed at least one level above the contracting officer.
Use cost techniques when appropriate
Agencies must establish criteria and thresholds for using design-to-cost and life-cycle-cost techniques. These tools are used when cost control over the full life of the acquisition is important.
Allow waivers for urgent needs
Agencies may waive detail and formality requirements when urgency or compressed schedules make normal planning impracticable. Even then, the agency should still plan as much as possible under the circumstances.
Review acquisition history and descriptions
Before contracting, the contracting officer must review the acquisition history of the supplies and services and a description of the supplies, including graphics when needed for adequate description. This helps avoid repeating past mistakes and supports accurate requirements definition.
Use the metric system
Agency planners must include the metric system of measurement in proposed acquisitions when required by law and agency metric plans. This promotes standardization and compliance with federal metric policy.
Meet sustainability requirements
Planners must comply with sustainable acquisition policy for sustainable products and services, follow the Guiding Principles for sustainable federal buildings, and require contractor compliance with federal environmental requirements when contractors operate Government-owned facilities or vehicles.
Address ICT accessibility
Planners must ensure that requirements for information and communication technology include accessibility standards and that those standards are built into requirements planning. This applies to products and services such as help desks, call centers, training services, and automated self-service support.
Make advisory-services determination
Before issuing a solicitation for advisory and assistance services involving proposal evaluation, the agency must determine that enough trained and capable covered personnel are not readily available within the agency or another Federal agency. This prevents unnecessary outsourcing of inherently governmental or sensitive evaluation work.
Protect inherently governmental functions
No purchase request may be initiated and no contract may be entered into that would cause a contractor to perform an inherently governmental function. Agencies must also manage contracts and orders so official control over performance remains effective.
Use lessons learned and performance-based methods
Agencies must use knowledge from prior acquisitions to refine requirements and strategies. For services, they should increase use of performance-based acquisition methods on follow-on acquisitions whenever practicable.
Support small business participation
To the maximum extent practicable, planners must structure requirements to facilitate competition among small business concerns and avoid unnecessary, unjustified bundling that would block small business participation.
Responsibilities
Agency Head or Designee
Prescribe the agency’s acquisition planning procedures and establish the internal controls, thresholds, formats, and approval requirements needed to implement FAR 7.103.
Acquisition Planners
Develop acquisition plans, define requirements, draft statements of work and specifications, consider competition and commercial-item strategies, apply sustainability and accessibility requirements, and use lessons learned to improve future acquisitions.
Contracting Officer
Review acquisition history and product descriptions before contracting, ensure the file supports the selected contract type, and confirm that plans and revisions comply with FAR requirements and required approval levels.
Approving Official / Higher-Level Reviewer
Review and approve acquisition plans and revisions, and for other than firm-fixed-price contracts, sign the plan at least one level above the contracting officer.
Agency Program and Technical Personnel
Help define needs, performance outcomes, specifications, cost estimates, and technical requirements so the acquisition is realistic, competitive, accessible, and aligned with agency mission needs.
Small Business and Socioeconomic Policy Officials
Help ensure requirements are structured to support small business participation and identify bundling concerns that are unnecessary or unjustified.
Sustainability and Environmental Officials
Support compliance with sustainable acquisition policy, the Guiding Principles for federal buildings, and environmental requirements for contractor-operated facilities and vehicles.
ICT Accessibility Officials / Requirements Staff
Ensure ICT-related requirements include applicable accessibility standards and are incorporated into requirements planning and solicitation documents.
Practical Implications
This section is a planning checklist, not just a policy statement. If the agency’s procedures are weak, the solicitation and contract file often end up weak too, which can create competition, protest, audit, and performance problems.
Contract type selection must be justified in the file. A common mistake is choosing a contract type based on convenience rather than risk, uncertainty, and the nature of the work.
High-risk and cost-reimbursement acquisitions need more discipline. Agencies should expect written plans, higher-level review, and stronger documentation when the acquisition is complex, expensive, or risky.
Requirements must be written with downstream compliance in mind. Accessibility, sustainability, metric usage, environmental obligations, and small business participation should be addressed early, not added after the solicitation is drafted.
Planners should not over-restrict competition or over-bundle requirements without a sound reason. Poorly structured requirements can reduce competition, limit small business participation, and make the acquisition harder to defend.
Lessons learned matter. Agencies should use prior acquisition history to improve future requirements and acquisition strategies, especially for services where performance-based approaches are often the better default.
Official Regulatory Text
The agency head or a designee shall prescribe procedures f or the following: (a) Promoting and providing for full and open competition (see part 6 ) or, when full and open competition is not required in accordance with part 6 , for obtaining competition to the maximum extent practicable, with due regard to the nature of the supplies and services to be acquired ( 10 U.S.C. 3206(a)(1) and 41 U.S.C. 3306(a)(1)). (b) Encouraging offerors to supply commercial products or commercial services, or to the extent that commercial products suitable, to meet the agency needs are not available, nondevelopmental items in response to agency solicitations ( 10 U.S.C. 3453 and 41 U.S.C. 3307). (c) Ensuring that acquisition planners address the requirement to specify needs, develop specifications, and to solicit offers in such a manner to promote and provide for full and open competition with due regard to the nature of the supplies and services to be acquired ( 10 U.S.C. 3206(a)(1) and 41 U.S.C. 3306(a)(1)). (See part 6 and 10.002 .) (d) Ensuring that acquisition planners document the file to support the selection of the contract type in accordance with subpart 16.1 . (e) Establishing criteria and thresholds at which increasingly greater detail and formality in the planning process is required as the acquisition becomes more complex and costly, including for cost-reimbursement and other high-risk contracts ( e.g. , other than firm-fixed-price contracts) requiring a written acquisition plan. A written plan shall be prepared for cost reimbursement and other high-risk contracts other than firm-fixed-price contracts, although written plans may be required for firm-fixed-price contracts as appropriate. (f) Ensuring that the statement of work is closely aligned with performance outcomes and cost estimates. (g) Writing plans either on a systems basis, on an individual contract basis, or on an individual order basis, depending upon the acquisition. (h) Ensuring that the principles of this subpart are used, as appropriate, for those acquisitions that do not require a written plan as well as for those that do. (i) Designating planners for acquisitions. (j) Reviewing and approving acquisition plans and revisions to these plans to ensure compliance with FAR requirements including 7.104 and part 16 . For other than firm-fixed-price contracts, ensuring that the plan is approved and signed at least one level above the contracting officer. (k) Establishing criteria and thresholds at which design-to-cost and life-cycle-cost techniques will be used. (l) Establishing standard acquisition plan formats, if desired, suitable to agency needs. (m) Waiving requirements of detail and formality, as necessary, in planning for acquisitions having compressed delivery or performance schedules because of the urgency of the need. (n) Assuring that the contracting officer, prior to contracting, reviews: (1) The acquisition history of the supplies and services; and (2) A description of the supplies, including, when necessary for adequate description, a picture, drawing, diagram, or other graphic representation. (o) Ensuring that agency planners include use of the metric system of measurement in proposed acquisitions in accordance with 15 U.S.C. 205b (see 11.002 (b)) and agency metric plans and guidelines. (p) Ensuring that agency planners- (1) Comply with the policy in 11.002 (d) regarding procurement of sustainable products and services (as defined in 2.101 ) in accordance with subpart 23.1 ; (2) Comply with the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings and Associated Instructions (Guiding Principles), for the design, construction, renovation, repair, or deconstruction of Federal buildings (see 36.104). The Guiding Principles can be accessed at https://www.sustainability.gov/pdfs/guiding_principles_for_sustainable_federal_buildings.pdf ; and (3) Require contractor compliance with Federal environmental requirements, when the contractor is operating Government-owned facilities or vehicles, to the same extent as the agency would be required to comply if the agency operated the facilities or vehicles. (q) Ensuring that acquisition planners specify needs and develop plans, drawings, work statements, specifications, or other product or service requirements ( e.g. , help desks, call centers, training services, and automated self-service technical support) descriptions that address information and communication technology (ICT) accessibility standards (see 36 CFR 1194.1 ) in proposed acquisitions and that these standards are included in requirements planning (see subpart 39.2 ). (r) Making a determination, prior to issuance of a solicitation for advisory and assistance services involving the analysis and evaluation of proposals submitted in response to a solicitation, that a sufficient number of covered personnel with the training and capability to perform an evaluation and analysis of proposals submitted in response to a solicitation are not readily available within the agency or from another Federal agency in accordance with the guidelines at 37.204 . (s) Ensuring that no purchase request is initiated or contract entered into that would result in the performance of an inherently governmental function by a contractor and that all contracts or orders are adequately managed so as to ensure effective official control over contract or order performance. (t) Ensuring that knowledge gained from prior acquisitions is used to further refine requirements and acquisition strategies. For services, greater use of performance-based acquisition methods should occur for follow-on acquisitions. (u) Ensuring that acquisition planners, to the maximum extent practicable- (1) Structure contract requirements to facilitate competition by and among small business concerns; and (2) Avoid unnecessary and unjustified bundling that precludes small business participation as contractors (see 7.107 ) (15 U.S.C. 631(j)). (v) Ensuring that agency planners on information technology acquisitions comply with the capital planning and investment control requirements in 40 U.S.C. 11312 and OMB Circular A-130. (w) Ensuring that agency planners on information technology acquisitions comply with the information technology security requirements in the Federal Information Security Management Act (44 U.S.C. 3544), OMB’s implementing policies including Appendix III of OMB Circular A-130, and guidance and standards from the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. (x) Ensuring that agency planners use project labor agreements when required (see subpart 22.5 and ). (y) Ensuring that contracting officers consult the Disaster Response Registry via https://www.sam.gov , Search Records, Advanced Search, Disaster Response Registry Search as a part of acquisition planning for debris removal, distribution of supplies, reconstruction, and other disaster or emergency relief activities inside the United States and outlying areas. (See 26.205 ).