Contract quality management decision support system: A knowledge sharing model

With an increased emphasis on the outsourcing of operations within the federal government, the ability of government decision makers to manage and improve the quality of services received from contracts has become a major challenge. This challenge is especially acute in the military where there is an increasing reliance on the contracting of logistics support functions at a time when the nation is engaged in the "Global War on Terrorism". The successful development and implementation of an innovative decision support system (DSS) has resulted in an effective solution for one Army installation. This paper analyzes this DSS effort, from a knowledge sharing viewpoint, and compares the findings to current research in order to identify the various knowledge sharing principles incorporated within the DSS. The paper presents a general knowledge sharing model, that was derived from an analysis of this working DSS, that can serve future research and development efforts for contract quality management in both the government and private industry.