Government intends to make award after exchanges with offerers after receipt of proposals, due notice of the intention to "conduct discussions with offerors whose proposals have been determined to be within the competitive range" must be provided. Notification procedures at 15.503(a) and debriefing procedures at FAR 15.305(c)(4) to FAR 15.306(c) must be followed in respect of offers excluded from the competitive range. If a competitive range is used, COs must send pre-award notifications to offerors thus excluded. An agency entering into discussions must provide "meaningful discussions". If FAR Part 15 is used, there must be a proposal evaluation under FAR 15.305 to include a "fair and reasonable" price determination under FAR 15.305(a)(1), a past performance evaluation under FAR 15.305(a)(2) and a technical evaluation under FAR 15.305(a)(3). For each factor rating, identify each offeror's key strengths, uncertainties and deficiencies of the proposal and then explain how the strengths, uncertainties and deficiencies resulted in that rating. Focus specifically on the factors and subfactors specifically stated in the solicitation/instructions to offerors. Do not use unstated source selection criteria to select the winning offer. Discuss those discriminators that make one offeror better than another based on the selection criteria. Be as detailed and focused upon discriminators as the source selection results allow. If something was not a discriminator then say so and also state why it was not. If the strength had no bearing on the offeror's rating, state so. Adequately address the impact of past performance on the decision; remember, no past performance is rated NEUTRAL!! A drafter of the source selection decision document must show the source selection authority's thought process and reasons behind the comparative analysis. Use a declaration of thinking/intent on the part of the source selection authority (SSA). For example: I selected; I thought; I determined; I reviewed; etc. Source selections cannot compare the offers against each other, only against the award criteria. Spend some time on the summary to make it correct as it is very important. It is meant to very quickly put in words the best of the key discriminators used by the SSA to reach their decision. Don't focus the discussion on only one offeror. The Source Selection Decision Document (SSDD) compares assessments of the successful offeror against the others. If there are a large number of offerors, the detailed discussion may be limited to the most highly rated offerors. Some light discussion of lower