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Akorn Komputing Paul Van Akkeren |
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PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION A few tidbits about proposal management and development are presented below. Many books and documents have been written on the subject and these topics and many more are treated in much greater detail in the documents (several documents are listed on the proposal links page). Also, many organizations and individuals (including me) give seminars that cover these topics in much greater detail.
Proposals to state and local governments and grant requests
must similarly follow very strict formats. The RFP and any instructions
accompanying the RFP will specify exactly what to write to and the format.
I once worked with an RFP that even had the compliance checkoff sheet that would
be used by the evaluators attached to it. There is no excuse to submit a
non-compliant proposal in such a situation.
Proposal writing must be concise, especially since most proposals are page-limited now. State the premise, action, promise, or whatever it is you want to say to answer the requirement. Then provide text and graphics to fill in the details and prove your assertion. Then summarize and get on to the next point. Above all, you must sell! The proposal is not a treatise, but a document that should make the customer want to buy the product. Proposal Outline (for a typical federal government bid)
Not all of these sections will be required for each proposal. For example, technical literature is only necessary for a bid that includes commercial products. The technical approach/solution may be required as a separate volume or it may be a section in the Technical/Management volume. An Executive Summary may be required or may be specifically disallowed by the RFP. When it is required or not mentioned in the RFP (and therefore allowed), it should be included. The Executive Summary should be able to stand alone and provide a hard-hitting, concise overview of the whole bid and give the reviewer good reason to believe that the bidder is the best possible choice for the award, possibly showing additional value to the agency. Within each volume the following sections should precede all the other material:
An outline for a grant request is shown below. Just like a proposal, the grantor will specify the specific items (and names) to include and the format. The outline is merely presented as an example. Prior to submitting a grant request, frequently a concept paper is required which provides a brief overview of what is intended for the project. Even if one is not required, it can provide valuable guidance within the organization about the potential project and how it can be implemented.
Writing a
proposal brings out the best and the worst of the team members. Proposal
efforts are almost always highly concentrated - there never seems to be quite
enough time to write the polished document that management and the team members
would like to produce. So the team produces the best possible document
they can in the time available, working as fast and as hard as they can.
This usually means long hours. It is not uncommon for most team members to
start a proposal project working 40-60 hours a week and to increase to 70-100
hours per week by the end of the project, particularly the senior members of the
team. The best ways to overcome this
problem is by comprehensive planning prior to release of the RFP and applying
sufficient and knowledgeable resources to the proposal effort. Proposal team
members are chosen for the expertise they bring to the project - some are highly
technical subject matter experts, some are designers, some are managers, some
are technical writers, and some are specialists in graphics, editing, and
production. A proposal team can consist of one person doing everything or
it can be a large team of specialists in the above skills and more.
Individual groups (such as technical specialists) frequently consist of mostly
senior people with a few intermediate and junior level people to assist.
The majority of the people assigned to a proposal team are (or should be) very
experienced senior level people. A highly organized and focused top-down
management structure is required to properly manage a large proposal team and
proposal process.
Writing a
proposal is an iterative process. The effort begins with ideas, then an
outline, then expanded ideas, and then a series of drafts with critical reviews
at multiple points. There are several elements necessary to produce a good
proposal and the lack of any element (or insufficient attention to it) seriously
jeopardizes the project:
Engineers and other technical experts are rarely good writers. Many proposals are lost because a good solution is buried in poor writing. Professional writers who understand the proposal process should always be involved in developing proposals. A good technical writer can query the technical expert for the details and put them onto paper in a cohesive and detailed fashion that will inform and satisfy the reader. Good technical writers will be able to understand the technical experts and translate their language to the language of the audience. Proposal Project Problems and Mistakes The biggest problem that I see in small and mid-sized companies is to start the proposal development process some time after the release of the RFP. The proposal manager is not informed of the bid or given any significant information until the final bid/no-bid decision is made by management. This is a recipe for disaster. The process must be started long before the release of the RFP, even though a final bid/no-bid decision has not been made. Gathering information, teaming arrangements, and recruiting key personnel require long lead times, usually more time than is available for the response. Business development and capture professionals (which may be the president or other executive of a small company) must make contact with the appropriate government representatives prior to release of the RFP to discuss the needs of the agency and how the company can fulfill those needs. Many RFPs are preceeded by draft RFPs or/and requests for comments long before the final RFP is released. These provide valuable insight to potential bidders in making the bid decision and developing their responses. Large sections of the proposal can be written prior to release of the RFP based on prior information releases. Responses from potential bidders give the government a heads-up on who the potential bidders are and their expertise. This helps them in determining what they can realistically ask for in the requirements. Information gathering and reviews far in advance of release of the RFP allow for developing portions of the proposal without the pressure of meeting a deadline and being able to perform more systematic research to understand the requirements and potential solutions.
Another big
problem is writing the proposal the way the company executives (or someone else
leading the bid) want to write it, not the way the RFP asks for the response.
A company may have always done it this way (and even won a few bids), so
it is hard to convince company management that there is another way of doing
things. Smaller companies that have
received bids primarily through set-asides and companies and individuals who
aren’t experienced in highly competitive bidding are particularly guilty of
this.
Corporate
management must give the proposal manager absolute authority in all matters
regarding the proposal effort. The best efforts I have observed were at
the local office of a large national aerospace corporation. The office of
the proposal manager on large efforts is within a few feet of the office of the
vice president (top officer in the local office). The vice president does
not attend team meetings or make other obvious showings, but it is well known
that he is in constant contact with the proposal manager and is aware of the
solution and progress. I have seen situations where he made major changes
in a proposal team quickly and without fanfare. This is the way it should
be. I have seen other companies where corporate management would not act
and it virtually destroyed the team and the proposal effort. Swift effort
by management in such a case sends a message to everyone on the team (and within
the company) that corporate management listens and wants a smooth-running effort
(and company). The proposal
manager must have the sole authority and responsibility for managing the
proposal team and effort. I recently was part of a proposal team where
there were multiple managers, each reporting through a different line of
management. The result was chaos. The proposal manager did not have
the authority to make the demands on many members of the team that were
required. As technical writers we were constantly fighting with the
technical people for information. Since the technical people reported to a
different manager, many of them were not cooperative (not because they wanted to
be, but because they hadn’t been given the direction by their manager).
The proposal eventually was completed, but not without a lot of hard feelings
and wasted effort. The quality of the final document was not up to the
standards that we advocated. All members of a proposal team must be dedicated to completing the proposal without having to respond to significant outside demands. On a recent effort, most of the team was involved in two major proposal efforts, one due about two weeks before the one that I was working on. I believe that both efforts suffered from this duality. Proposal
management, team members, and corporate management must understand the
importance of adequate reviews of proposal efforts. The review process is
not to criticize the work of the team or individuals, but to bring in additional
information and ideas, as well as to assure that the response is focused to the
requirements of the RFP. I have always advocated a "Pink Team"
review of proposal detailed outlines, a “Blue Team” review of first drafts,
and a "Red Team" review of final drafts at a minimum. The Pink
and Blue teams are made up of the proposal manager and other senior individuals.
The review team members can be writers, technical managers, or corporate
management. They should review the outlines for coverage of RFP
requirements, themes, and ideas.
On some efforts a
"Green Team" (or second Blue Team) will review the second drafts.
This team is staffed by the proposal manager and other senior individuals.
The purpose is to assure that all of the requirements are addressed, appropriate
themes are employed, and useful information is getting into the document.
It should also show positive process from the Blue Team Review. Usually some sort
of administrative review is conducted on the final document during the
production phase to assure that the claims and responses in the proposal are
acceptable to top management. Corporate management uses this time to
become familiar with the details of the bid. A "Gold Team" review may be employed some time after the "Red Team" review. This is generally done only on mid to very large efforts. The review is carried out primarily by senior technical, management, and proposal management personnel as a last check on sections that were substantially altered based on the "Red Team" review results. In federal bids, specific procedures are stated for submitting questions. Basically, the government cannot talk to a single bidder without talking to all potential bidders simultaneously once an RFP is released. It is good to talk to government contracting and technical people before release of the RFP, either through formal comment submissions or directly. Once an RFP is released, questions are submitted to the contracting officer and the questions and answers are released to all potential bidders simultaneously. Be careful in the wording of questions. Make sure you really don't understand a requirement so that you don't ask the contracting office to repeat something or respond to something obvious. Contracting officers tend to remember when they are annoyed (and who wouldn't) and the final proposal evaluation may be affected. Be careful in the wording of questions. Since all bidders receive the questions and answers, a question that gives a hint of your solution can give your competitors valuable insight into your bid. It may take some creative wording to ask a question without revealing your solution. In some cases it may be better not to ask the question and make an assumption, noting the basis for your assumption in the proposal. The proposal
manager, capture manager, or someone in the business development office must
follow the progress of the proposal after it is delivered. Questions or
CRs/DRs may be submitted by the government and these must be addressed promptly
and thoroughly. An oral proposal may be required. A Best and Final
Offer (BAFO) may be required. If the bid doesn't win, a review should be
scheduled with the agency to find out why and how their needs can be better
addressed in the future. The government is usually very cooperative in
this because they want the best possible work within the regulations and
procedures that they have to live with. These reviews help the losing
bidder improve their proposal processes as well as work on understanding of the
agency needs. Regardless of the outcome, some
"lessons-learned" information should be recorded - what went wrong,
what went right, and recommendations for improvement. Companies that
continually improve their bid process have a win high rate and are successful,
while companies that keep their process stagnant usually do not get enough new
business to remain competitive.
Maintaining
libraries provides an excellent source for finding information for future
proposals and keeping important information in one place.
Library materials should be updated frequently to include the most
current information and to make it complete.
Examples of proposal libraries include:
§ Resumes
§ Proposal
boilerplate
§ Proposals
and RFPs
§ Proposal
tracking database
§ Lessons-learned
and debriefings
§ Proposal
product evaluations § Standard operating procedures (SOPs) §Forms and templates
Before release of the RFP is the time to collect data – who
is the customer (not just their name, but who are the key individuals in the
customer organization), what is their work or function, what is their
environment, and what are the problems they are facing (such as decreasing
budgets, new or changed responsibilities, or decreased personnel).
Determine the size of the project in terms of what the customer will
likely want done under the contract, the types of work, and the potential dollar
value. Business development and/or
capture professionals as well as operations personnel can perform this task.
Also evaluate who the potential competition will be, their strengths and
weaknesses, and what it will take to beat them.
A product of such data-gathering may be that it is not likely that a
competitor can be beat and that it is better to not waste resources going after
the bid or that there may be a way of getting on a competitors team and
“getting a piece of the action.” One or more formal reviews during the pre-RFP period enables
formal evaluation of the data, determining what additional data is needed, and
making a decision to proceed or end pursuit of the bid.
Depending on the length of this data-gathering process and the make-up of
the capture team, the proposal manager may be involved from the beginning or may
be increasingly involved as it proceeds.
I prefer storyboards that are about 2 pages in length,
starting with the requirement copied from the RFP, any other required or
evaluation information, and references to the appropriate Section L, Section C,
Section M, and any other RFP requirements. Then
the author should write one or two sentences that forcefully state the response
to the requirements. This statement
should be in italics and should be able to stand alone in responding to the
requirements. The author may then
describe informally what will be included in the rest of the response, or what
he/she will be writing about. Graphics
play a crucial role in presenting ideas in a proposal and the author should
develop ideas for at least one major graphic before thinking in any detail about
what will be written in the section. The
graphics should be the center of the proposal section as well as provide the
support. The author should describe
the graphic or/and attach hand-drawn or other crude preliminary graphics. A detailed outline should be included in the storyboard. I like to add links or other information that tell me where I can find details I need to complete the writing. I also like to include questions that need to be answered in order to write the response, along with possible resources for answers – technical experts, web searches, or books/documents. Questions can also include questions to ask the government. Sometimes I include comments to myself, such as to remind me to include certain information in the writing. Performance Based Services AcquisItion For years the government has been trying to find ways to
improve the performance on contracts and decrease the cost.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control programs have been developed, along
with Continuous Improvement programs and various other initiatives.
These have helped, but fundamental problems have remained.
Performance Based Service Acquisition (PBSA) allows the government to set
the goals and then the contractor is free to develop the solution that will
reach those goals. The contractor is
not bound by a solution that has worked (or not worked in the past), but is
encouraged to innovate in order to reach and exceed the government’s goals.
The contractor is also encouraged to set higher goals and improve
performance over the term of the contract. Incentives
for exceeding performance goals and disincentives for failing to reach the goals
are built into the contract. This
acquisition method has caught on quickly in spirit, but very slowly and
gradually in actual practice. I
believe we can expect the practice to continue to evolve for at least the next
several years.
In true PBSA the government states the desired outcomes of
the contract and the contractor proposes the solution.
It allows the contractor to propose a solution that relies on its
expertise. On a given bid each
proposal could conceivably describe a completely different solution, with
different pricing and other features. The
disadvantage to the government is that it is harder to compare bids.
The advantage is that they are more likely to receive a high quality
solution and it is easier to pressure (or remove) the contractor if performance
goals aren’t met. On the other
hand, sometimes there are perturbations that prevent the contractor from
achieving the performance goals. In developing proposals there are several points to be
considered:
§ Is
it true PBSA, traditional services contracting, or somewhere in between;
§ If
it is true PBSA, then develop the solution based on company expertise, best
practices and the desired end result; § Establish an integrated team approach, including the prime contractor, all subcontractors, the government, and possibly
other contractors doing related work; § Set performance measures, including minimum or acceptable quality levels (AQL), measurement methods, incentives and
disincentives, and methods for improvement; § Establish a disciplined QA/QC program, combining it with performance measurement and management to form a Quality
Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP); § Build the project/program management to manage performance – performance management is integral to the overall
management at the project/program level as well as throughout the corporation; new performance measures.
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Initial preparation of an
oral proposal is similar to a written proposal. Start with an outline,
review, prepare a draft, review, prepare a draft, review, ... Oral
proposals may be prepared by the technical experts with assistance from proposal
professionals to enforce the required format, improve the style, improve the
language, and improve the look and feel (such as graphics).
A
Proposal Plan should be used to guide development of the proposal.
There are many opinions of how a storyboard should look and I will not be so
presumptuous as to say any opinion is incorrect.