Shipley Proposal Process Terms

Non-competitive contract award. 8(a) companies may receive direct awards up to $8M.

A cost specifically identified with a particular contract (e.g., labor, materials on that contract).

Defense Information Systems Agency's IDIQ for IT services including engineering, integration, and sustainment. Supports DoD's global communications infrastructure.

A feature of your proposal that sets your team apart from competitors AND is desired by the customer.

A preliminary RFP version released for industry review and comment before the final solicitation.

Methodology integrating scope, schedule, and cost data to measure project performance.

Concise 30-60 second persuasive summary of your offering for capture, BD, and oral presentations.

The federal agency enforcing environmental laws, contracting for environmental remediation, water infrastructure, and scientific research services.

A senior leader who champions a pursuit internally and with the customer, holds bid/no-bid and resourcing authority, and participates in gate and color-team reviews without running day-to-day capture or proposal work.

Customer-focused summary of the essential proposal contents — not an introduction.

Features are what you offer; benefits are the customer advantages. Benefits are always about the customer.

Principal set of rules governing how executive branch agencies acquire goods and services.

The DHS agency that coordinates federal disaster response, contracting heavily for logistics, temporary housing, and program management support after declared disasters.

A federal law requiring agencies to develop and operate risk-based information security programs for their systems, including systems run by contractors on the agency's behalf.

Central database for government contracting transactions.

A government-wide program that standardizes the security assessment and continuous monitoring of cloud services sold to federal agencies, so a provider can be assessed once and reused across agencies.

The last opportunity for offerors to revise their proposals after discussions, prior to source selection.

Further training a general AI model on a narrower, specific dataset so it performs better on a particular task, such as a company's own proposal voice and formatting.

Contract providing a fixed price regardless of actual contractor costs. Greater risk on the contractor.

Contract with target cost, target profit, ceiling price, and profit-adjustment formula.

When an ineligible prime finds an eligible partner to sub, then reverses roles on the recompete.

Contract clauses the prime must pass through to subcontractor agreements.

A design feature in proposal documents where key text is highlighted in a bordered box.

Negotiated agreement establishing billing rates for future contract pricing.

A large, general-purpose AI model trained on broad data and adapted for many different downstream tasks rather than built for one narrow job.

A proposal-writing structure that organizes a section into four parts: an opening summary, an introduction, the body, and a closing summary.

Provides public access to federal agency records upon request.

Acquisition where all size companies are eligible to bid.

Measurement unit representing one employee working full-time for one year.

Tool to determine an offeror's capability and experience gaps, and whether the combined team covers all contract areas.

Structured decision point to assess bid status and determine if a pursuit should continue or be terminated.

A segregated Microsoft 365 cloud environment, administered only by screened U.S. persons, built to satisfy DFARS, ITAR/EAR, and CMMC Level 2/3 requirements.

Indirect expenses for overall business management, allocated across all contracts.

Federal agency providing centralized procurement and services.

AI that creates new content (text, images, or other material) rather than only retrieving or scoring existing information.

A family of large language models trained to predict the next word in a sequence, then adapted for specific tasks such as drafting or summarizing.

Proposal technique where you highlight a competitor's weakness to emphasize your strength, without naming the competitor.

Senior leadership review and authorization to submit. Conducted after Red Team edits.

Isolated cloud regions built to meet elevated federal security requirements, restricting access to vetted U.S. persons and hosting data within the U.S.

Independent agency that audits federal programs and adjudicates bid protests.

Equipment owned by the government and provided to the contractor.

Task-order or delivery-order contract for IT available to all federal agencies.

The role responsible for developing, modifying, and coordinating proposal graphics for visual consistency and clarity, including setting graphic software standards across the team.

In-house cost review of pricing against technical, management, and other non-price sections.

GSA's government-wide IT services GWAC for complex, integrated IT solutions. Multiple award IDIQ with a $50B ceiling. Available to all federal agencies.

GSA's commercial catalog of products and services available to all federal agencies at pre-negotiated prices. Formerly multiple schedules (IT-70, etc.), now consolidated into one.

GSA's next-generation government-wide professional services IDIQ. Phase II launched Jan. 2026 with continuously open on-ramps across 13 domains and 6 pools (unrestricted + 5 SB tracks). ~4,100 awards to date. Designated Best-in-Class (BIC).

Long-term contract providing access to products and services at pre-negotiated prices.

When an AI model generates information that is false, fabricated, or not actually supported by its input, while presenting it with the same confidence as accurate content.

SBA program for businesses in designated underutilized areas.