Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL)
A Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL, DD Form 1423) is the contract exhibit specifying every data deliverable on a DoD contract — each item citing a Data Item Description with format, frequency, and distribution — required by DFARS 215.470 whenever data are ordered.
When a DoD contract requires data deliverables — technical manuals, test reports, software documentation, program status reporting — DFARS 215.470 requires a DD Form 1423 in the solicitation. Each CDRL line identifies one data item, cites the Data Item Description (DID) that standardizes its content and format, and sets the delivery schedule, distribution, and government review rights. DIDs live in DLA's ASSIST database.
CDRLs attach to the contract as lettered exhibits under the DFARS uniform line-item system, and each data item may be separately priced or not. Offerors price identified data items under 215.470, a reminder that every line on the form carries cost.
The recurring failure is treating the CDRL as boilerplate: programs order data nobody will read while omitting the deliverables sustainment will need years later, and a citation to a canceled DID buys nothing enforceable.
Regulatory Reference
DFARS 215.470; DFARS PGI 204.7105; DD Form 1423
RFO Status
The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul model deviations rewrite the FAR itself, so the DD Form 1423 process is not directly changed; agencies are expected to streamline their own supplements, making DoD class deviations and DFARS revisions the channel to watch.
Category
Documents & Artifacts
How AcqBot Helps
AcqBot assembles the CDRL alongside the SOW or PWS it supports: it maps each data deliverable in the requirement to a current DID, fills in the DD Form 1423 fields, and flags data items with no matching requirement — the lines that add cost without a customer.
Related glossary entries
Justification & Approval (J&A)
A Justification & Approval (J&A) is the formal document required by FAR 6.303 to justify awarding a federal contract without full and open competition, citing one of seven statutory exceptions and approved at thresholds based on dollar value.
Performance Work Statement (PWS)
A Performance Work Statement (PWS) describes required outcomes and measurable performance standards for a services acquisition rather than prescribing how the work must be done, enabling contractors to propose their own methods under performance-based acquisition.
Statement of Work (SOW)
A Statement of Work (SOW) is the contract document that prescribes, in specific and directive terms, the tasks a contractor must perform, the deliverables due, and the schedule — placing responsibility for the approach on the government.
Statement of Objectives (SOO)
A Statement of Objectives (SOO) is a brief government document stating top-level acquisition objectives and desired outcomes, leaving offerors free to propose their own technical approach and performance work statement in response.