CPARS

CPARS is the Department of Defense's performance rating system. After a government contract ends, the contracting officer fills out a CPARS report that documents your performance. The ratings cover technical performance, schedule performance, cost performance, and customer satisfaction. The scale is subjective (Excellent, Satisfactory, Marginal, Unsatisfactory), but the consequences are objective. If you get an Unsatisfactory rating on CPARS, you've got a serious problem.

Here's why CPARS matters: when a contracting officer evaluates past performance in a new proposal, they pull CPARS data. A contractor with consistent Excellent ratings is heavily favored. A contractor with even one Unsatisfactory rating faces immediate skepticism and has to explain it away. Worse, if you have multiple Unsatisfactory ratings or one Unsatisfactory rating plus some Marginal ones, you become essentially uncompetitive. Evaluators see the CPARS data as objective documentation of failure. And unlike a private sector reference where you might know the person rating you, CPARS is an official government record that you can't spin.

The practical implication: on every DoD contract, pay attention to schedule and cost management. Don't let projects drift. If you're going to miss a deadline, tell the contracting officer early and propose a recovery plan. If you're tracking toward a cost overrun, communicate it before it happens. Contracting officers are more forgiving of problems you disclose proactively than problems they discover. And request a copy of your CPARS report when contracts close. Review it for accuracy and provide feedback if the ratings don't match your understanding. You can formally dispute CPARS ratings, though it's rare that disputes result in changes. Still, the record matters for your next proposal.