Advancing systems engineering in support of the bid and proposal process

Abstract

Qualifying strategic opportunities to pursue and capitalizing on those opportunities is key to the very survival of an organization. Successful organizations that thrive on contract work capture contracts and earn a profit executing those contracts. Systems engineers are generally the "cradle to grave" technical points of contact for projects and are charged with guiding the definition of the technical solutions in the early lifecycle stages. This paper examines existing research that may guide systems engineering in support of bid and proposal pursuits. Systems engineering, software engineering, bid management, economics, finance, game theory, and cognitive psychology literature are all mined for areas related to bidding. As a result, a number of research opportunities are identified.

A Systems Engineering Perspective on Proposal Management

“…As contracts may last for years, there is a need to consider the timeframe and the time value of money when evaluating proposal opportunities [15]. This period of time may include the cash inflows or cash outflows from preparing the proposal and executing the contract.…”

“…Real options are discussed as a way to evaluate proposal efforts [15]. Real options are useful for analyzing the value of a proposal effort because, early in the process, an organization may be spending resources to investigate an opportunity without a firm commitment to actually submit a proposal.…”

“…The authors identify a number of challenges and opportunities for advancing systems engineering in support of proposal management [15]. These challenges include attempting to identify and remove various cognitive biases from the cost estimation process, leveraging advanced concepts from finance like utility functions and real options to aid in decision making related to proposals and optimizing the use of systems engineering in the proposal process [15]. In order to meet these challenges, more understanding of the stakeholders, associated objectives, and activities in the proposal process is needed.…”

“…Philbin defines a highlevel model for the proposal process that includes systems engineering considerations, such as requirements capture, architecture, development, and evaluation. The authors identify a number of challenges and opportunities for advancing systems engineering in support of proposal management [15]. These challenges include attempting to identify and remove various cognitive biases from the cost estimation process, leveraging advanced concepts from finance like utility functions and real options to aid in decision making related to proposals and optimizing the use of systems engineering in the proposal process [15].…”

Choice Architecture as a Way to Encourage a Whole Systems Design Perspective for More Sustainable Infrastructure

“…Systems thinking is a way to catch what reductionism can miss: connections, relationships, patterns, processes, and context. Smartt and Ferreira [6] call for research to better determine the involvement of systems engineering in the bid process of contract work in order to better estimate the cost of a project to avoid losing money throughout the life cycle. In contrast, the goal of this paper is different in that we are not focused simply on cost, but in how to encourage systems thinking leading to a whole systems design approach throughout the infrastructure design process.…”