A Systems Engineering Perspective on Proposal Management
Mastering proposal management is key to the very survival of organizations that capture and execute contracts to supply products or services. Systems engineering plays a central role in proposal management for complex systems by often leading the technical effort. This paper provides an alternative perspective to the existing acquisition-focused literature by examining proposal management from the supplier perspective. This paper identifies proposal stakeholders and defines objectives that can be used to evaluate success from each stakeholder's perspective. A high-level process model is identified that describes steps in the proposal process and the corresponding role of systems engineering. This paper also introduces a detailed process model for defining the proposed system solution. A more thorough understanding of proposal stakeholder roles, associated objectives, and the proposal process can help supplier organizations devise more effective strategies for responding to proposal opportunities.
systems engineering proposal model strategy