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

Proposals for Government contracts come in all shapes and sizes. The following discussion reflects my thoughts on organizing to support a major proposal activity in response to a Government Request for Proposal (RFP). However, it is recognized that smaller proposals do not need a complex team in order to win. In fact, I have worked on proposals where there were three people involved in addition to myself – a writer/editor, a graphics arts specialist, and a word processing specialist.

It should be mentioned that for major proposal efforts it was originally thought desirable to have the multi-disciplinary proposal team co-located in one facility for convenience of communication. However, the advent of computer networking via the Internet, the development of collaborative web sites, along with teleconferencing and videoconferencing, has made this requirement somewhat obsolete.

The figure below presents an organization chart for a typical proposal for a medium to large Government contract. The individual blocks represent functions rather than individuals recognizing that, in some areas, it may take more than one person to perform a given task.

The leader of the proposal is the Capture Manager, who is appointed by the Business Development Manager. The responsibility of the Capture Manager is ultimate, as far as the proposal is concerned, since he/she is held responsible for winning the contract. Unfortunately, he/she is also held accountable if the contract is lost (if such is due to events under the Capture Manager’s control). The Capture Manager prepares the Proposal Management Plan (including the personnel, equipment and facility resources to perform the required tasks within the budgeted cost and schedule) organizes the team, monitors and controls the effort, and reports status and progress to management. He/she is the single point of contact with management for all matters pertaining to the proposal.

The Program Manager, Finance Manager, Contracts Manager, Engineering Manager, Operations Manager, and Logistics Manager are the functional leaders of their areas of responsibility. They assign senior individuals within their organizations to comprise the proposal team leadership, provide a management review function, and provide specialized support as required. It is desirable to have the people that prepared the proposal be assigned to staff the contract after award. However, it is recognized that this may not always be feasible.

The Proposal Manager is responsible for implementing preparation of the proposal under the leadership of the Capture Manager. He/she uses the resources provided by the Functional Managers and implements their guidance at status and progress reviews to produce a winning proposal in accordance with the Program Management Plan.

The Volume Leads are responsible to the Proposal Manager for preparation of their assigned volumes (Technical, Management, Past Performance, Cost, and Contracts). For simplification of presentation, I have shown some of the volumes as being combined. However, this may not always be the case depending on the RFP requirements. In addition, there may be other documents that are required to be prepared and submitted with the proposal such as separately submitted plans (e.g., Quality Assurance; Safety, Health and Environmental; Management and Labor Relations; Integrated Master Plan; Integrated Master Schedule; and Integrated Logistic Support, etc.) as required by the RFP.

The Section Leads are responsible to the Volume Managers for preparation of the individual sections of the volumes for which they are assigned. These are usually limited to the Technical Volume and the Management Volume, since these are structured in accordance with the Proposal Preparation Instructions defined in the RFP Section L and the Evaluation Criteria items and factors defined in the RFP Section M.

The Authors are responsible to the Volume Leads and Section Leads for preparation of the individual topical outline paragraphs, including the format and content thereof, for which they are assigned. They are provided guidance by the Volume Leads, Section Leads, and Functional Management and are responsible and accountable for the technical and management adequacy of their assigned cognizant items.

The Business Development Manager, Finance Manager, and the Contracts Manager for the Prime Contractor, Major Subcontractors, and Team Members are the primary contributors for the data which comprises the Past Performance Volume. For convenience, a library function should be established and maintained for data regarding past and present contracts that are usually required by Government RFPs.

The Cost Estimators, Cost Accounting System Specialists, and Contract Specialists for the Prime Contractor, Major Subcontractors, and Team Members produce the data contained within the Cost Volume and the Contracts Volume. The Cost Volume includes the labor and material cost estimates (including the basis of estimates for substantiation purposes) labor rates, overhead rates, General and Administrative (G&A) rates, and fee factors as required by the RFP. The Contracts Volume includes a copy of the Sections A through K of the RFP including all fill-ins required if not previously provided under the On-line Representations and Certification Application (ORCA) process.