Alpha Acquisition Process And Impact On Cost Analysis
The Alpha Acquisition process may provide a cost savings to both government and contractors. The following is from the Defense Acquisition University  website:
The alpha contracting process involves many activities performed jointly by the Government and contractor teams.
 This process innovation offers a number of advantages and performance enhancements, such as:
- Improving communications
- Decreasing the number of formal RFP iterations
- Â Lessening revisions and rework required to correct misunderstandings
- Reducing errors and mistakes
- Shortening the cycle time (procurement administrative lead time or PALT) required for contracting
- More
 The benefits of Alpha Acquisition are not limited to reducing procurement acquisition lead times.
Contractor Reduced Proposal Preparation Costs
The contractor benefits by significantly reducing proposal preparation costs. Alpha Acquisition is a framework for expediting the acquisition process. The purpose is to eliminate any unnecessary processes and reviews, and to streamline and conduct in parallel the required ones. Nevertheless, the same issues addressed in standard procurements are addressed in Alpha Acquisition, the same questions asked, and the same support provided. However, it is all done much more quickly and started earlier in the process.
DCAA Cost Savings
One benefit includes the early involvement of DCAA personnel in the immediate utilization of rate recommendations, rather than at some later date when significant updates would have occurred. This results in a cost and time savings for DCAA by precluding subsequent reviews.
DCMC Savings
DCMC receives a cost and time savings by performing one review rather than several as a result of proposal updates.
Additional Government Program Office Costs
See the comment attached to this BLOG entry  from one working in a program office.
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Having supported the government through a couple rounds of Alpha Acquisition on major contract mods, my observation is that it increases the cost estimation workload, since each discussion yields another round of “what would that cost” questions. Net result seems good in my opinion, with govt acq staff having a larger involvement in the process and therefore greater understanding of both the requirements and the proposed solution and associated risks.