The Course Project for PROJ598 consists of two parts, which provide familiarization to processes associated with contract and procurement management.
Part 1 (PP1) focuses on analyzing an RFP and covers all of the COs but touches mainly upon textbook Chapters 1–8 of World Class Contracting and PMBOK® Guide Chapter 12. You will be required to identify an opportunity through https://www.Fbo.gov, (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.https://www.bidsync.com/bidsync-app-web/vendor/shared/BidOpportunities.xhtml (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or an alternative approved source, and then follow the instructions below.
Part 2 (PP2) of the Course Project entails creating an RFP. You will select it from one of the RFP procurement sources listed under the PP1 section (or one of your choosing) or from one identified in Part 2 below. You will then use the PP1—Course Project RFP resources to develop your critical elements and to support a completed RFP suitable for submission to vendors.
Guidelines
Part 1: Proposal Analysis Assignment (Due Week 4)
This assignment can be deployed for use by both individuals and teams.
You are asked to identify a product or service that you are interested in developing or seeing developed. It could be any activity in which you may be asked to find a qualified resource to provide a product or service to an organization. Or you could view yourself as a consultant helping to develop a client RFP.
Your charge is to identify, use, and learn from some existing sources by going to the sites listed below to find a procurement document you can use to model the information required in developing a procurement request.
Go to https://fbo.gov (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., https://www.bidsync.com/bidsync-app-web/vendor/shared/BidOpportunities.xhtml (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or another approved source.
You may be required to register. Instructions are located at the site within the documentation.
Once at the website, you will enter your search criteria for the state and type field for a solicitation.
Search for opportunities within a recent 90-day period and select any opportunity of interest to you.
Include the solicitation number, requestor’s name, RFP type, product or service being requested, and contract award date.
Analyze the selected formal written proposal for structure, content, and unique requirements specific to the product or service being requested. Review the delivery methods, legal requirements, and other relevant points for consideration to be included as appropriate to the RFP.
The Week 4 submission will be a written analysis (format and instructions).
Your written analysis must have a minimum of 12 pages but must not exceed 15 pages in length, and should include the items below.
Write a one-page a summary of the bid. This is usually taken from the instructions to bidders from the requestor or the instructions to bidders or in the scope and description of work.
Your analysis will need to include an assessment of what is needed and perhaps why it is needed. This section will be 3–5 pages.
Include a description of your management plan for the overall project (hint: apply PM concepts) (2–3 pages).
Include an RFP resource team assessment: who’s on the team you’re analyzing, what their roles are, and so on.
You also need to include your team bios for the key staff members. Indicate each team member’s past experience, skills, and education relevant to the bid preparation (one page) for each team member. Each team member must also include one-page description of the work that the team member is responsible to perform in the creation of the RFP.
The format of your entire proposal must use standard margins with 12-point font and must include any required attachments or appendices.
Below is a suggested outline (include the following as a minimum).
Cover page
Cover letter
Background statement
Scope of work
Resume(s) summarized as bios (skills, education, and experience summary)
Project Manager/owner (your bio modified to fit the project)
Team Member 1 skills, education, and experience summary
Team Member 2 skills, education, and experience summary
Past references
Team Member 1 contact information, project title, and role and responsibility
Team Member 2 contact information, project title, and role and responsibility
Team Member 3 contact information, project title, and role and responsibility
Management plan
What resources and experiences can you provide to support the project?
What resources do you need to complete the project?
Partner capabilities as needed, if required
Reference page (use APA format)
Submit your Part 1 assignment.
Evaluation Criteria
Technical merit is substantially more important than price in determining who will be included in the competitive range. As proposals become more technically equal, price will take on greater significance. Your proposal will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria.
Approach
Format
Content
Subject matter knowledge
Completeness
Quality of the proposal
Quality of the presentation
Course Objectives (COs): The following COs are addressed in the PP1 assignment.
CO A: Given a project situation, discuss and document the four phases of the procurement cycle and the impact each procurement has on the overall project.
CO B: Given a project situation, analyze the factors that are important when qualifying and selecting suppliers for a project requirement.
CO C: Given a project situation for a major contract, examine the key factors, including risk factors that affect buyer and supplier decisions concerning contract pricing and the selection of the proper contract type.
CO D: Given a procurement situation for a major contract, analyze the application of e-procurement and other types of supplier bidding models available.
CO E: Given a situation to solicit a bid proposal, evaluate technical, management, commercial, and ethical requirements, and then prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP).
Resources: The PMBOK® Guide is a good starting point as well as Chapters 1–8 of World Class Contracting. Please be advised that considerable relevant material is also available on the Internet, so you might want to conduct a search for materials that may yield insights into the RFP development process. Use the RFP template from your PP1 assignment, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
Procedures and deadline: All project issues should be brought up in the Course Q & A Forum or addressed in class. The Part 1 RFP analysis should be prepared in a Microsoft Word format suitable for electronic transmission. Any resources used beyond the textbooks need to be cited in your document, including links to relevant websites. Be sure to include footnotes and a bibliography.
Submission details: All Part 1 documents must be submitted no later than the end of Week 4. Submit a copy of the RFP and the analysis you developed.
Clarification on assignment: All questions of a clarification nature should be asked in the Course Q & A Forum discussion topic.
Part 2: Creation of The Procurement Document (Due Week 7)
In the second part of the project, you will use the knowledge you developed in Part 1 to create a procurement document. The procurement document should reflect an area of individual or team interest, or you may select one of the procurement cases below as the basis for creating an RFP.
Optional RFP Procurement Cases
You may select one of the following RFP procurement cases to develop your PP2 RFP.
A New Practice Field
You own a semipro baseball team (in the location of your choice) and you want to construct a new practice field. You own the land already (20 acres). The land is relatively flat and it has only a few dilapidated structures (barns) and trees on it. Connecting up with existing water and sewer lines would present no unusual technical problems. It is now September, and you would love to have that field ready to go by March, 2 years hence. Your vision would include the playing field, a small clubhouse, and a parking area that would hold about 50 cars. No spectator seating would be required.
An Environmental Impact Study
You are a general contractor wishing to put up a modest-sized concrete production plant on the outskirts of town. The plant would operate on only one 10-hour shift per day and would produce about 400 cubic yards of output per day for 6 days per week. It is necessary for an environmental impact study to be undertaken before the county can issue a permit. The biggest issue is, of course, the air quality implications of concrete production, but potential impacts on water quality are of concern as well. It is now October, and you want to start building the plant by the end of next summer, if at all possible. It is now time to issue an RFP to procure an environmental impact analysis. Studies of this type normally require about 3 months of concerted effort by a team of analysts .
An Inventory Control System
You sell seeds from a catalog, and business has been blossoming. But your inventory tracking system is inadequate. In high season, supply outages have been frequent, and customer complaints over delays have been increasing. You fear that your business will die on the vine unless something is done to improve things. You want to hire a management consultant to design a new inventory tracking system. This kind of work normally requires about 6 months of effort. It is now May. You need to issue an RFP for this work. The procurement will be for the design stage only—implementation may or may not be handled under a separate contract at a later date.
Your RFP should use the best practices of the preaward phase listed in the text that apply to your project. The main body of the RFP is a minimum of 15 double-spaced pages (12-point font), and the total should be no more than 25 pages. You may attach additional appendices if you wish, but these must be limited to clarifying material that has been borrowed from elsewhere or developed as an exhibit, and they are not included as part of the 15-page minimum for the RFP.
The first page of your overall submission must be a cover sheet that contains the project title, team members, team name, team leader contact, and course-identifying information (e.g., “PROJ598 for this term” will suffice, but use the correct term identifier), along with team members and their roles.
The second page will be a table of contents (TOC) listing the major RFP sections and page numbers.
The next 12-15 pages constitute the main body of the RFP. Remember, all sections in the template you’ve created as the outline in Part 1 are graded components, so remember to complete each section and subsection. You should not have any sections that are not applicable (N/A) or to be determined (TBD) in the proposal. Include a reference page at the end of the proposal listing the references that you used in the RFP preparation in APA format, including websites, if any. Don’t forget to also cite any sources in the text of your paper using APA format. This is an academic assignment, so APA format is required.
The minimum structure should therefore be as follows.
Cover sheet (one page)
Table of contents (one page)
RFP main body (minimum of 15 pages)
References in APA format (no page limit)
Appendices (no page limit)
Appendix B: supplier list (one page)
Deadline: Part 2 is due by the end of Week 7. A presentation of the RFP in PowerPoint format is due for presentation in Week 8.
Assignment: Project Part 2 covers all COs for this course. In this assignment, you will be required to create an opportunity of your choosing. Follow the Course Project instructions (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
Your proposal should have a minimum of 20 double-spaced pages (font size 12) total, but no more than 25 pages. If you feel you need to be more thorough, you will not be penalized for going over the maximum. The minimum of 20 pages is required, and points will be deducted for white space.
Be sure to follow the instructions and include all required items. You will lose points for any missing graded components. Your grade will be based on the course rubric below.
Your paper must include the following graded components.
One-page cover letter: introduces your company and your desire to bid on the project
Scope of work: includes a specific and detailed explanation of how you will approach completing the project (e.g., project scope statement with high level task and explanation of how you plan to complete each task). This is the largest section and should be about 5-7 pages.
Biographies of individual team members with summary of skills: limited to one page each for the key staff that you are proposing that will work on the project. Resumes must show required skills of the staff working on the project. The team leader should be included as the company owner or project manager. Bios should include the following.
Staff name, title, and contact information
Description of skills
Education and/or certifications
Prior experience in project area
Three past performance references: each including a point of contact and contact information in addition to the name of the project with a narrative description of the project you completed for that company.
Description of any proposed teaming partners and subcontractors: requires that your project have a partner, subcontractors, or suppliers. You must include what they will be contributing to the project and why .
RFP should evidence your capabilities, as well as your proposed partners’ capabilities: includes a narrative description of the capabilities of your company and your partner (subcontractors or suppliers) to complete the project. This is your sales pitch to let the government know you and your partner are fully capable of completing the project.
The format of your entire proposal must use standard margins with 12-point font and include all attachments or appendices. You will also be graded on professionalism of format, grammar, spelling, and so on.
Submission Details
This part is a creative exercise, but you will need to prepare a more realistic scope of work, including a technical approach that should be a reflection of the actual requirements for your chosen project. Part 2 will be submitted. Instructions can be found in the Part 2—Formal Proposal Submission in Course Resources.
Clarification Issues: As a service to everyone in the class, all questions of a clarification nature should be posted in the Course Q & A Forum during the week in which your question arises .
Deadline: Submit your Part 2 assignment.
Evaluation Criteria
Technical merit is substantially more important than price in determining who will be included in the competitive range. As proposals become more technically equal, price will take on greater significance. Your proposal will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria.
Approach
Format
Content
Subject matter knowledge
Completeness
Quality of the proposal
Quality of the presentation
Milestones
Course Project Part 1 is due in Week 4 and is worth 150 points.
Course Project Part 2 is due in Week 7 and is worth 140 points.
Grading Rubrics
Project Part 1:
CATEGORY POINTS
Cover Page 5
Cover Letter 15
Technical Approach 35
Personnel Qualifications and Resumes 20
Past References and Contact Information 20
Teaming Partners and Subcontractors 20
Capabilities and Partner Capabilities 15
Professionalism of Format, Grammar, Spelling, Page Count, and so on 10
Total Points 140
Project Part 2:
CATEGORY POINTS
Cover Page 5
Table of Content and References 15
RFP Main Body Sections 1 and 2 30
RFP Main Body Sections 3 and 4 30
RFP Main Body Sections 5 and 6 30
Appendices A and B 30
Professionalism of Format, Grammar, Spelling, Page Count, and so on 10
Total Points 150See attachments.