Glossary / Business Development, Evaluation
Past Performance
Past Performance is the body of information about a contractor's record on prior contracts, typically drawn from CPARS, agency-provided past performance questionnaires (PPQs), and contract references. In source-selection evaluations, past performance is considered alongside technical and price factors and often carries significant weight. Relevance (similar scope, complexity, and size) and recency (each solicitation sets the window, often the last three to five years) are the two gating dimensions. Favorable past performance can tip a close trade-off decision; unfavorable past performance can disqualify a firm.
Why it matters to your pipeline
Past performance is a self-reinforcing asset. Winning your first contracts in a new market builds the CPARS record that helps you win the next. Conversely, a poor CPARS rating stays visible to evaluators for three years after the work ends (six for construction). Careful firms treat past performance as a proactive program: tracking relevance, diversifying clients, mining CPARS narratives for reusable proposal language, and preparing PPQ responders on each prior client team.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
A firm pursuing its first cloud-migration RFP has 'Exceptional' CPARS on three relevant prior awards. The evaluator rates its past performance 'Substantial Confidence,' the highest category, and the firm wins a trade-off against a larger competitor with stronger technical approach but weaker past performance.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.