Shipley Proposal Process Terms

The role responsible for preparing a briefing team to deliver a winning oral proposal or finals presentation, guiding development of the presentation and coaching individuals and the team on delivery.

Exists when a contractor's relationships could bias ground rules or impair objectivity.

Flexible procurement for R&D and prototyping outside the standard FAR framework.

An offeror's track record on current or past contracts — a key evaluation criterion.

A reference detailing contract specifics and relevance to the current bid.

Statement of work for performance-based acquisitions with measurable outcomes.

Reviews storyboards, outline, discriminators, and features/benefits before the first draft is written.

A listing of potential opportunities a company wants to bid or pursue, tracked through BD lifecycle stages.

A management tool documenting identified security weaknesses in an information system, along with the remediation tasks and milestone dates needed to close them.

An interactive environment for experimenting with, testing, or fine-tuning an AI model's behavior in a low-stakes setting.

Shipley's proprietary writing approach for proposal sections: Plan, Organize, Write, examine, and Revise.

An interim, early estimate of what price the customer will perceive as competitive, made before final requirements are known and used to guide initial solution design.

Analysis-driven estimate of the price required to win a competitive bid.

Company submitting the proposal directly to the government, bearing primary responsibility.

A tool to assess the chance of winning a contract. Helps prioritize which opportunities to pursue.

Federally funded resources providing free assistance to companies pursuing government contracts.

Formatting and producing final proposal volumes: covers, TOC, cross-references, printing, and assembly.

A four-character code identifying what a contract actually buys (a product, service, or R&D effort), distinct from NAICS, which classifies the vendor's industry.

A leading trade association representing companies that provide technology, engineering, and professional services to the federal government, and an influential voice on acquisition and budget policy.

A senior DoD acquisition official who oversees a portfolio of major defense programs within a service branch, setting priorities and resourcing across that portfolio.

The government official with authority and accountability for a specific program's cost, schedule, and performance, and typically the technical decision-maker a contractor's team works with day to day.

The natural-language instruction a person enters into an AI system to produce a response.

The practice of writing clear, structured instructions that reliably produce useful, accurate output from an AI model.

A security risk in which hidden or malicious text embedded in a document or webpage tricks an AI system into ignoring its real instructions and following the attacker's instead.

The role that supports a Proposal Manager by coordinating administrative tasks that maintain the integrity and security of proposal information, inputs, and outputs.

A Microsoft Office-based storyboard tool Shipley uses to map out a proposal section's content and structure before drafting begins.

The role responsible for improving the clarity, organization, and persuasiveness of proposal writing, focused on making text clear, concise, and correct rather than on strategy or compliance.

Person who manages the proposal process: schedule, reviews, writing assignments, format, and team coordination.

All people supporting a proposal — PM, writers, artists, editors, reviewers, capture manager, plus contracts, pricing, and management.

An individual contributor who produces a compliant, responsive, customer-focused proposal section, organizing and presenting persuasive content from personal knowledge or subject matter expert input.

Formal challenge to an agency's procurement or award decision. Filed at GAO or Court of Federal Claims.

The system of digital certificates, certificate authorities, and cryptographic keys used to verify identity and encrypt communications on federal networks.

Process of reviewing an opportunity for fit with strategic plan, capability, resources, and profitability.

Predicts how well your near-final proposal would score when evaluated by the customer.

Required Section K of the RFP verifying company status. Updated annually in SAM.

Government tool to gather information on potential companies and capabilities.

Documents used by an agency to solicit proposals from industry. Also called a solicitation.

A simpler solicitation seeking price quotes for well-defined items.

A matrix, often built alongside the compliance matrix, that traces each solicitation requirement to the exact section, page, and paragraph where the proposal addresses it.

A matrix aligned with the compliance matrix that tracks exactly where in the proposal each compliance requirement has been addressed.

The practice of designing, deploying, and using AI in ways that are fair, transparent, secure, and accountable to the people affected by it.

A technique where an AI model first retrieves relevant information from a specific set of documents before generating an answer, instead of relying only on what it was originally trained on.

NIST's structured lifecycle process for managing cybersecurity risk in federal information systems, underlying the path to an Authority to Operate.

The cover page of a federal solicitation, typically an SF 33 or SF 1449, identifying the solicitation number, issuing agency, and proposal due date; it becomes Section A of the executed contract upon award.

The part of a solicitation and contract listing the contract line items being purchased, along with quantities, units, and pricing structure.

The technical heart of a solicitation, containing the Statement of Work, Performance Work Statement, or specifications describing exactly what the government needs delivered or performed.

The part of a solicitation specifying packaging, packing, preservation, and marking requirements for physical deliverables.

The part of a solicitation defining how the government will inspect and accept delivered goods or services, including quality standards and inspection authority.

The part of a solicitation stating the delivery schedule, period of performance, and place of performance a contractor must meet.

The part of a solicitation covering administrative mechanics of running the contract after award, such as invoicing instructions and points of contact.