Shipley Glossary: Business Development & GovCon Terms

SBA program for disadvantaged small businesses through federal contract set-asides. Up to nine years.

Strategic process of identifying and developing long-term relationships with target customers, mapping decision-makers, and positioning for future opportunities.

Process of obtaining goods or services — from requirements through solicitation, evaluation, and award.

DoD classification categorizing programs by dollar thresholds for oversight.

Government strategy detailing timeline, competition type, contract type, and solicitation parameters.

A short informative caption for a proposal graphic that highlights a feature or benefit beyond simple description.

Specific tasks with deadlines assigned to individuals or teams during the capture phase, typically tracked in an action plan log.

A prompting technique in which the user tells the AI what was valuable about its last response, increasing the likelihood the next response follows that same direction.

An AI system that can carry out a multi-step task toward a stated goal with less step-by-step human direction than a standard chat assistant, such as researching a solicitation and flagging gaps.

The policies, roles, and review processes an organization puts in place to make sure AI tools are used safely, ethically, and in line with contract and data requirements.

Multiple Air Force contract vehicles for cyber operations, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance services.

Corporation under ANCSA eligible for contracting preferences.

A change to a published solicitation before contract award.

A proposal outline with embedded RFP references so writers can see relevant requirements for each section.

A nonprofit association linking military, government, industry, and academic professionals in communications, IT, intelligence, and cybersecurity.

Army's Information Technology Enterprise Solutions–3 Services IDIQ for IT services across the Army enterprise.

Computer systems built to perform tasks that normally require human judgment, such as reading documents, recognizing patterns, or drafting text.

Formal authorization for an information system to operate based on security assessment.

Written understanding between agency and contractor for future contract terms — not itself a contract.

Document explaining the rationale, assumptions, and methodology behind a cost estimate.

In a negotiated procurement, the contractor's final revised proposal after government discussions.

Source selection evaluating technical merit, past performance, and innovation beyond just price.

A systematic error in an AI model's outputs, often reflecting patterns or imbalances present in its training data.

Decision by the capture team to pursue an opportunity based on win probability, weighing risk, value, and investment required.

A tool used to compare an organization's capabilities against competitors' likely capabilities, typically built against the customer's stated issues or requirements.

A milestone that validates whether the company is positioned to win based on capture data collected to date.

The state of having gathered enough capture intelligence, such as customer insight, teaming, staffing, and price-to-win understanding, to justify committing resources to a compliant, competitive proposal.

Analysis of competitors including their strengths, possible teaming, discriminators, potential solutions and strategies, and knowledge of the customer.

Simplified method for repetitive purchases from qualified sources — like a charge account.

Reviews initial capture plans to evaluate knowledge of customer and opportunity. Occurs early in the lifecycle.

Generic reusable information about the company that serves as a starting point for proposal-specific content.

Competitive solicitation for basic and applied research proposals.

Contract consolidating requirements from multiple previous contracts into one.

Shipley's organizational assessment measuring maturity across Customer, Leadership, People, Process, and Support.

The end-to-end process from market identification through contract delivery. Shipley defines seven phases (0–6) with decision gates at each stage.

Shipley's methodology: seven phases (0–6) from Market Segmentation through Post-Submittal Activities.

Five-character identifier for companies doing business with the federal government.

Short document summarizing company background, capabilities, certifications, and identifiers.

The art and science of pursuing opportunities before the Draft RFP and RFP are released. Involves customer engagement, competitive intelligence, and solution development.

Person who leads the capture process — responsible for budget, capture plan, customer engagement, teaming decisions, and handoff to the proposal manager.

A plan developed by the Capture Manager and management team laying out the process to win a specific bid.

SBA certification that a small business can perform a specific contract.

The sequence of intermediate reasoning steps a model works through on its way to a final answer, similar to a visible train of thought.

The senior agency executive accountable for IT strategy, systems, and acquisition oversight; frequently a key stakeholder or evaluator on IT-related pursuits.

A nonprofit association of commercial companies selling to the federal government, advocating for a more efficient federal acquisition system.

Structured proposal review process (Shipley methodology). Teams include Blue, Pink, Red, Gold, White Glove, Green, and Black Hat.

Measures, equipment, and procedures used to protect government voice, data, and message traffic from interception or unauthorized disclosure.

Legislation requiring full and open competition in procurement.

Systematic evaluation of competitors' likely strategies, solutions, pricing, and teaming arrangements.

Contracting officer's decision identifying which proposals continue in the competitive process.