Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15 — Contracting by Negotiation
FAR Part 15 addresses negotiated acquisition planning, solicitation, proposal evaluation, exchanges, source selection, and related records for covered federal procurements.
What the authority record establishes
FAR Part 15 addresses negotiated acquisition planning, solicitation, proposal evaluation, exchanges, source selection, and related records for covered federal procurements.
Binding federal acquisition regulation within scope
The exact official title, issuing body, jurisdiction, version or application record, and linked source define the scope of this page. Readers should not transfer the authority's status to a commercial product or infer transaction-, patient-, system-, site-, or organization-specific applicability from this summary.
Why it matters to this market
Evaluation, communication, source-selection, conflict, authority, and documentation controls must be tied to the actual acquisition method rather than represented by one generic RFx feature.
Affected operating stages
- Acquisition Planning
- Solicitation
- Proposal Receipt
- Evaluation
- Exchanges
- Source Selection And Award
Capabilities to examine
Request Intake And Procurement Orchestration
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for request intake and procurement orchestration.
Strategic Sourcing And RFx Management
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for strategic sourcing and RFx management.
Contract Authoring, Repository, And Obligation Handoff
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for contract authoring, repository, and obligation handoff.
Supplier Onboarding And Master-Data Governance
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for supplier onboarding and master-data governance.
Supplier Qualification, Risk, And Performance Management
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for supplier qualification, risk, and performance management.
Supplier Network, Portal, And Transaction Collaboration
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for supplier network, portal, and transaction collaboration.
Savings Pipeline, Value Tracking, And Performance Analytics
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for savings pipeline, value tracking, and performance analytics.
ERP Integration, Data Lineage, And Access Governance
Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for ERP integration, data lineage, and access governance.
Affected buyer audiences
- U.S. federal contracting professionals
- program and technical evaluators
- government contractors
- public-procurement technology providers
Implementation questions
- Which entities, products, populations, transactions, systems, sites, or jurisdictions are actually within scope?
- What is binding, what is guidance, and what is a technical or consensus standard?
- Which publication, adoption, effective, application, transition, and enforcement dates differ?
- Who owns legal, clinical, quality, regulatory, policy, or operational interpretation?
- How will a source revision affect open work and historical decisions?
Interpretation boundary
This publication does not advise on a live federal acquisition or determine the applicability of FAR provisions or agency supplements.