By B. David Krigelman
President
Krigelman & Associates, Inc.
321.242.7598
www.krigelmanandassociates.com 

Proper planning and scheduling is extremely important for the success of any business endeavor. It is also critical for proposal development activities due to their highly concentrated level of activity that is applied over a constrained short period of time.

The key to proposal planning and scheduling is to prepare a Proposal Management Plan (PMP) for management approval prior to the initiation of the effort, which ensures the cost resources are well applied and increases the proposal team’s performance effectiveness. Any proposal team-requested or management-directed changes to the PMP must also be approved by the same individuals that approved the original document.

Any well thought out plan includes the tried, tested, and proven management elements of planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling, and reporting. It should also include a statement of the requirements, an analysis of the requirements, and the detailed process steps that must be performed to ensure the requirements are met. A recommended outline for a typical PMP in summary format is shown in the figure below.

The Introduction section describes the purpose and scope of the PMP. This section should be short and crisp, provides a roadmap of the document contents, and gets the reader interested in reading the rest of the document.

The Applicable Documents section lists the documents that are applicable to the PMP including those that are mandatory and those that are for guidance purposes only. These documents should primarily include Contractor corporate level policies, instructions, and procedures and Industry standards that will be used to prepare the proposal.

The Management section describes the structured process that will be used for preparation of the proposal, including the elements of planning organizing, monitoring and controlling, and progress and status reporting. The management section should emphasize the multi-disciplinary integrated product/process team approach that will be applied.

The Requirements section summarizes the Request for Proposal (RFP) documentation and lists the baseline and revision status of the Solicitation, including Exhibits and Attachments, and all Amendments pertaining thereto.

The Requirements Analysis section describes the front-end analysis of the solicitation requirements, including a compliance matrix, topical outline, author assignments, and page count allocations. It also references the data presented at the management-level Win Strategy meeting and the Kickoff meeting convened for all proposal participants. If the storyboard process is used for proposal development, they should be included here for reference.

The Implementation section summarizes the primary and support documentation being produced as a result of the proposal process and lists the baseline and revision status of the Technical, Management, Past Performance, Cost/Price, Contract, Plans and Other Deliverables.

 

IDENT. NO.	TITLE	DESCRIPTION
1.0	Introduction	Describes the purpose and scope of the Proposal Management Plan (PMP).
2.0	Applicable documents	Lists the documents that are applicable to the PMP including those that are mandatory and those that are for guidance.
3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3   3.4	Management Planning Organizing Monitoring and controlling Reporting	Describes the management process that will be used for preparation of the proposal, including the elements of planning organizing, monitoring and controlling, and progress and status reporting to management.
4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3	Requirements Solicitation Amendments Exhibits and Attachments	Lists the baseline and revision status of the Solicitation, Amendments, including Exhibits and Attachments.
5.0	Analysis	Describes an analysis of the solicitation requirements, including a compliance matrix, topical outline, author assignments, and page count allocations.  References data presented at the Win Strategy meeting and the Kickoff meeting.
6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6	Implementation Technical Management Past Performance Cost/Price Contract Plans and other deliverables	Lists the baseline and revision status of the Technical, Management, Past Performance, Cost/Price, Contract, Plans and Other Deliverables.