Everything You Need to Know About Government Contract Types

As the world's single largest buyer of goods and services, the federal government has many ways to structure its procurements. Different situations and conditions often determine the best vehicle for a particular purchase. Contracting officers must assess a wide range of factors to determine which contract type will provide the government the best value and the least risk.

The Complete Guide to Government Contract Types provides a comprehensive overview of the key government contract vehicles and types: fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, incentive, and other (which includes letter, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, and time-and-material contracts). The author first explains the selection process for contract vehicles, which is the basis for selecting the appropriate contract type for the work in question. He then presents a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of each contract type, explaining how each works best to meet certain types of requirements and conditions.

This is an essential resource for both contracting officers and contractors seeking to understand and work effectively within the nuances of contract selection and compliance.

“This is an important book; it is a necessary book. It comprehensively addresses the rapidly expanding role of the project manager, a role that is striving to keep up with the corresponding expansion in the definition of project success.”
—from the Foreword by Michael O'Brochta

This new edition of a classic, bestselling guide addresses the soft project management skills that are so essential to successful project, program, and portfolio management. Mastering leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, change management, and organizational politics has always been key to project manager success. This book demonstrates the why and how of creatively applying soft project management skills in these areas and shows how to develop, adjust, and hone these skills given the forces and trends in today's business world.

Using real-world stories and case studies to model how to implement these skills, Englund and Bucero illustrate how the right mix of soft and hard professional skills can help create an environment that supports greater project success. This second edition features new sections on agile project management, ethics, business analysis, management across generations and between cultures, and more. It maps well to recent topic updates in the sixth edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge.

This book is a valuable manual for all the complex interpersonal skills necessary for project managers' success and will help them develop a more complete portfolio of skills, knowledge, and attitudes to serve as road maps to greater project success.

“This is an important book; it is a necessary book. It comprehensively addresses the rapidly expanding role of the project manager, a role that is striving to keep up with the corresponding expansion in the definition of project success.”
—from the Foreword by Michael O'Brochta

This new edition of a classic, bestselling guide addresses the soft project management skills that are so essential to successful project, program, and portfolio management. Mastering leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, change management, and organizational politics has always been key to project manager success. This book demonstrates the why and how of creatively applying soft project management skills in these areas and shows how to develop, adjust, and hone these skills given the forces and trends in today's business world.

Using real-world stories and case studies to model how to implement these skills, Englund and Bucero illustrate how the right mix of soft and hard professional skills can help create an environment that supports greater project success. This second edition features new sections on agile project management, ethics, business analysis, management across generations and between cultures, and more. It maps well to recent topic updates in the sixth edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge.

This book is a valuable manual for all the complex interpersonal skills necessary for project managers' success and will help them develop a more complete portfolio of skills, knowledge, and attitudes to serve as road maps to greater project success.

“This is an important book; it is a necessary book. It comprehensively addresses the rapidly expanding role of the project manager, a role that is striving to keep up with the corresponding expansion in the definition of project success.”
-from the Foreword by Michael O'Brochta


This is a classic, bestselling, practical guide that addresses the "soft" project management skills that are so essential to successful project, program, and portfolio management. Through a storytelling approach, the authors explain the necessary skills and how to use them to create an environment that supports project success. They demonstrate both the "why" and the "how" of creatively applying soft project management skills in the areas of leadership, conflict resolution, negotiations, change management, and more.

This second edition features new sections on ethics, business analysis, agile project management, managing across generations and between cultures, and more. Skills like leadership, negotiations, conflict management, and navigating organizational politics have always been important for project managers who want to succeed. Now the authors show how you can adjust and hone those skills given the forces and trends in today's business world.

Here Are the Tools to Achieve Project Management Success
Buy both The Complete Project Manager and The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit and save $18 at checkout by entering coupon code COMBO1.


This companion to The Complete Project Manager provides the tools you need to integrate key people, organizational, and technical skills. The core book establishes that success in any environment depends largely upon completing successful projects; this book gives you the means and methods to meet that goal. The hands-on, action-oriented tools in this book will help you develop a complete set of skills—the right set for you to excel in today's competitive environment.
The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit will enable you to implement the easy-to-understand, universal, powerful, and immediately applicable concepts presented in The Complete Project Manager. You may already be aware of what you need to do; this book supplies the how through:
• Assessments
• Checklists
• Exercises
• Examples of real people applying the concepts.
Use these tested methods to overcome environmental, personal, social, organizational, and business barriers to successful project management!
Although The Complete Project Manager can be used as a stand-alone book, it is designed to complement The Complete Project Manager: Integrating People, Organizational, and Technical Skills. 

Here Are the Tools to Achieve Project Management Success
Buy both The Complete Project Manager and The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit and save $18 at checkout by entering coupon code COMBO1.


This companion to The Complete Project Manager provides the tools you need to integrate key people, organizational, and technical skills. The core book establishes that success in any environment depends largely upon completing successful projects; this book gives you the means and methods to meet that goal. The hands-on, action-oriented tools in this book will help you develop a complete set of skills—the right set for you to excel in today's competitive environment.
The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit will enable you to implement the easy-to-understand, universal, powerful, and immediately applicable concepts presented in The Complete Project Manager. You may already be aware of what you need to do; this book supplies the how through:
• Assessments
• Checklists
• Exercises
• Examples of real people applying the concepts.
Use these tested methods to overcome environmental, personal, social, organizational, and business barriers to successful project management!
Although The Complete Project Manager can be used as a stand-alone book, it is designed to complement The Complete Project Manager: Integrating People, Organizational, and Technical Skills. 

Healthy compromise is necessary for accomplishing any meaningful goal with other people. But when your job presses you to betray your word, your principles, or other important commitments, it becomes profoundly unhealthy and deeply stressful. And it can happen even while working for an organization or leader you otherwise respect and admire.

Elizabeth Doty offers the antidote: redefining the game. When you feel pressured to play by rules that undermine your integrity, Doty shows how you can tap into six personal foundations that will allow you to stay true to your deepest values and aspirations. Through more than fifty vivid firsthand accounts of compromise and courage in business, she provides guidance for anyone at any organizational level who wants to act with greater clarity, strength, and purpose, as well as for senior leaders striving to lead organizations that allow people to remain true to themselves. The Compromise Trap details a strategy that enables you to remain a positive force—for yourself and whatever you define as the greater good—no matter how difficult the circumstances.

A detailed and inspiring strategy for staying true to yourself at work while contributing to your organization’s effectiveness and integrity • Based on over fifty candid interviews with businesspeople at all levels, including vivid firsthand accounts of compromise and courage • Eminently practical and constructive, with exercises and strategies you can apply wherever you work Healthy compromise is a fact of organizational life, part of accomplishing any meaningful goal with other people. But when it involves betraying your word, your principles, or other important commitments, it takes a bite out of your passion and vitality, trapping you in a web of nagging doubts and regrets or even dread and remorse. Sadly, certain common misconceptions about compromise mean we can fall into this trap unknowingly, making a sort of “devil’s bargain by degrees.” Even worse, this can happen while working for companies and leaders we otherwise respect and admire. So what can you do, short of sacrificing your career? In this unflinching but consistently constructive and timely look at concessions, double-binds, and contradictions of organizational life, Doty suggests the antidote is to “redefine the game” – expand your ability to be a positive force regardless of the setting. At the core of this strategy are six personal foundations that she illuminates with practical exercises and examples, including Reconnect to Your Strengths, See the Larger Playing Field, Define a Worthy Enough Win, Find Your Real Team, Make Positive Plays, and Keep Your Own Score. Full of candid firsthand stories from Doty’s interviews with over fifty businesspeople as well as her own experiences as a consultant and manager, The Compromise Trap offers sympathetic guidance for individuals striving to live with greater integrity, courage, and purpose at work, as well as the executives, coaches, consultants, and loved ones who support them and senior leaders who want to expand what it means for organizations to act with integrity in the world.

Countless people face “integrity stress” in their daily work - where they feel pressure to compromise their values, life commitments and integrity with no choice but to make a “devil's bargain” at times. This book offers powerful understanding of what is really going on in these compromises, how people can escape the traps and hooks of organizational life by “playing a bigger game” -- which allows them to be true to themselves while also contributing more effectively in their work.

Not only do we need more female leaders at the top, but we need more women at all levels of business, government, and nonprofits to step up—there's no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is.

True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to jump in even when your knees are shaking. Any woman who waits until she feels 100 percent confident before offering a big idea or asking for a raise or promotion will never get anywhere. Drawing on her own and other female leaders' experiences, as well as on her survey of over 500 working women, Lerner lays out practical strategies for beating this confidence myth and overcoming obstacles like gender bias. The book features dozens of Confidence Sparks, simple but powerful exercises and techniques that can catapult anyone's career to the next level.

Not only do we need more female leaders at the top, but we need more women at all levels of business, government, and nonprofits to step up—there's no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is.

True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to jump in even when your knees are shaking. Any woman who waits until she feels 100 percent confident before offering a big idea or asking for a raise or promotion will never get anywhere. Drawing on her own and other female leaders' experiences, as well as on her survey of over 500 working women, Lerner lays out practical strategies for beating this confidence myth and overcoming obstacles like gender bias. The book features dozens of Confidence Sparks, simple but powerful exercises and techniques that can catapult anyone's career to the next level.

Research shows that women consistently undervalue their skills and readiness for challenging jobs, promotions, and assignments – while men have the opposite bias. How can women compete on this tilted playing field if they talk themselves out of the game before they start? Helene Lerner tells women that NOW is the time to step up as a leader, ready or not.

Networking is a critically important skill, but few people are aware of its power or know how to develop, maintain, and leverage networks over their lifetime. In The Connect Effect, Michael Dulworth reveals the surprising ways personal, professional, and virtual networks can transform our lives and offers innovative tools—including a test to measure your networking quotient (NQ)—to help you identify, expand, and use your network to improve your life and the lives of those around you.

Networking is not mere socializing—it is a vital personal and professional development skill. An effective network can make you more knowledgeable, help you address critical issues, accelerate your career, and even improve your health and well-being. As a recent article in MIT’s Sloan Management Review reports, “What really distinguishes high performers from the rest of the pack is their ability to maintain and leverage their networks.” Networking is simply too important to be left to chance. In this book, Michael Dulworth shows how to take a conscious, systematic approach to networking. After a short quiz to measure your “networking quotient” (NQ), The Connect Effect identifies three distinct kinds of networks: personal, professional, and virtual. Dulworth examines their specific characteristics and offers strategies, tools, and resources for building up and making the best use of each one. Stories from Dulworth’s twenty years of experience running networks, as well as interviews with top executives, researchers, and thought leaders, provide insights and advice about how networks function in the real world. Few of us are born networkers, but anyone—introvert, extrovert, or in-between—can learn to master this important skill. And as you build your networks and the connections between members multiply, you’ll find that the benefits you gain grow exponentially. This extraordinary return on your networking investment is what Dulworth terms “The Connect Effect”—and in this book he shows how it can enrich every aspect of your life.

Entrepreneur and executive development expert Mike Dulworth's THE CONNECT EFFECT provides readers with a simple framework and practical tools for developing that crucial competitive advantage: a high-quality personal, professional/organizational and virtual network.

Find out how to uncover the hidden talents, assets, and abilities in your neighborhood and bring them together to create a vibrant and joyful community. It takes a village!

We may be living longer, but people are more socially isolated than ever before. As a result, we are hindered both mentally and physically, and many of us are looking for something concrete we can do to address problems like poverty, racism, and climate change. What if solutions could be found on your very doorstep or just two door knocks away?

Cormac Russell is a veteran practitioner of asset-based community development (ABCD), which focuses on uncovering and leveraging the hidden resources, skills, and experience in our neighborhoods. He and John McKnight, the cooriginator of ABCD, show how anyone can discover this untapped potential and connect with his or her neighbors to create healthier, safer, greener, more prosperous, and welcoming communities. They offer a wealth of illustrative examples from around the world that will inspire you to explore your own community and discover its hidden treasures.

You will learn to take action on what you already deeply know-that neighborliness is not just a nice-to-have personal characteristic but essential to living a fruitful life and a powerful amplifier of community change and renewal.