Source Selection Step by Step

CHAPTER 4DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LPTA AND TRADEOFF SOURCE SELECTIONS

Both lowest-price technically acceptable (LPTA) and tradeoff source selections require that the government evaluate offerors on at least one other factor in addition to price or cost. In fact, the government may use any number of evaluation factors for either type of source selection. These non-cost factors are generally referred to as merit factors or technical factors. Each factor may have any number of subfactors or may have no subfactors at all.

In an LPTA selection, the proposals must be deemed acceptable on the merit evaluation factor(s) in order to be considered for award. ...