DID

A Data Item Description (DID) is a standard DoW document that states the required content, format, and preparation instructions for one type of deliverable. A CDRL cites the DID by number, so both parties know what the delivered document must contain. The DID is the specification for the paperwork.

How do you read a DID number?

DID numbers follow the pattern DI-XXXX-NNNNN:

• DI — Data Item.
• A subject code, four letters on current DIDs. The code identifies the functional area:
• MGMT — management.
• SESS — systems engineering.
• IPSC — information processing and software.
• NDTI — test.
• QCIC — quality.
• TMSS — technical manuals.
• SAFT — safety.
• CMAN — configuration management.
• ADMN — administrative.
• FNCL — financial.
• ILSS — integrated logistics support.
• A sequential number, sometimes with a revision letter suffix.

So DI-MGMT-81861 is a management-series DID: the Integrated Program Management Data and Analysis Report (IPMDAR), revision D, approved 12 March 2026. A solicitation may also reference a DID inline with the phrase "IAW DI-…" ("in accordance with").

ASSIST catalogs the approved DIDs. It is the official DoW repository for standardization documents. A canceled or superseded DID can still appear in a solicitation that someone copied from an older program, which is worth checking rather than assuming.

When does a DID matter in a bid?

Twice. First at pricing. A DID tells you the real size of a deliverable. A DID that requires numbered sections, a defined level of technical detail, and a government review cycle is not a two-page memo. The estimate should reflect that.

Second at delivery. The DID is the acceptance criterion that the government will actually apply.

The mistake that makes this term matter

A DID number looks like a formatting note. It sits in one narrow column of a spreadsheet, next to a title that already sounds self-explanatory, such as "Test Plan" or "Program Management Plan." The title is what people read. The number goes into the proposal unopened.

The document behind that number is the acceptance criterion. It states the sections the deliverable must contain and the level of detail each one needs. Suppose a team priced a "test plan" from its title. It then meets a DID that mandates numbered sections and a government review cycle, and it has already promised something larger than it estimated. None of that surprises the government. The government published the requirement in full, at the number nobody opened.

What goes wrong with DIDs in practice

Nobody opens them during the bid. Teams treat the CDRL as a list of titles. They copy the DID numbers into the proposal unread. They then discover the real content requirements months into performance. The cost of that discovery lands on the contractor.

Teams miss the tailoring. Solicitations frequently tailor DIDs on the CDRL itself. In the remarks block of the DD Form 1423, the government deletes, narrows or supplements requirements for a specific contract. A team that reads the base DID and never opens the remarks prices the wrong scope in one direction or the other.

The DID and the SOW conflict. The Statement of Work (SOW) describes one thing. The cited DID mandates content beyond it. The DID usually governs the form of the deliverable. Where the conflict goes to substance, raise it as a question before proposal submission.

The solicitation cites a DID that does not fit the deliverable. This is common on solicitations that someone assembled from the template of a prior program. Raise it in your questions. Do not quietly substitute your own format.

What to do

1. Pull the referenced DID for every CDRL line.
2. Read the tailoring block on the DD Form 1423.
3. Confirm that the deliverable you estimate is the deliverable the DID describes.
4. Record the mapping from CDRL item, to DID number, to the SOW paragraph that generates the work.
5. Keep that mapping as one artifact for the person who produces the document eighteen months later.

What a DID is not

A DID is not a data rights instrument. It states what a document must contain. It does not state what the government may do with that document after delivery. The data rights clauses and the restrictions that the contractor asserts govern that question.

A DID is also not unique to a single program. The whole point of the system is that many contracts reuse the same DID. That is exactly why it pays to build a reusable internal template once.

Silas™ resolves the DID numbers it finds in a solicitation to their titles. It ties each one back to the CDRL item and the requirements that produce it.