1. “Good Enough for the Government” What private company project managers can learn from government project managers Stacy Taylor President, Red Mountain Services stacy@red-mt.com

2. Stacy Taylor Background ▫Bachelors in Electrical and Computer Engineering ▫Masters in Engineering Management ▫Has played every role on a project and enjoyed every single one

3. What people think of when they think of government work.

4. The Reality

5. What makes government project management different? Regulations enforce best practices on RFP projects Masters of the schedule driven project (proposals and responses to RFPs)

6. What to take away today Red tape doesn’t have to be an obstacle, it can be your tool to be a better project manager Applying techniques from a highly regulated acquisition process to a private project can give you a clear roadmap when an internal process is lacking

7. RFPs FAR RFP Process Evaluating responses The one or two project dilemma

8. What if? You had to expose the process used and justify the last time your company purchased something?

9. FAR Federal Acquisition Regulation Governs the “acquisition process”

10. RFP Process RFP Creation Requirements Who to send it to Set schedule Send it out RFP Response Period Create Scoring System Respond to questions (carefully!) Collect Responses Evaluate Responses Blind name, cost Extract responses to requirements into spreadsheet Add back cost and name Select winner

11. What to do with the Responses Most common mistake, let the stakeholders see the responses from the vendor A PM or BA should piece apart the response into a grid for the stakeholders with name removed of the vendors Cost should not be given till the end

12. Scoring Requirement not met (0) Requirement partially met (1) Requirement fully met (2) Requirement exceeded (3)

13. Evaluation Sample Req ID RequirementResponse AScore (0-3) A Response BScore (0-3) B Response C Score (0-3) C DB1How often is data backed up? DailyReal-time through our redundant system Daily to data warehouse DB2Who is data owned by at contract end? XXXXX (company name) owns the data CustomerData is destroyed at contract end DB3Is data encrypted at rest? Yes (Credit cards and SSN) Yes, all data is encrypted No, it is behind our firewalls DB4Is data encrypted in transit? No Yes sFTP

14. Weighting Essential requirement (3) Desirable requirement (2) Nice to have requirement (1)

15. Scoring Sample Req ID RequirementWeight (1-3) Score (0-3) A Final Score A Score (0-3) B Final Score B Score (0-3) C Final Score C DB1How often is data backed up? 3263926 DB2Who is data owned by at contract end? 3002600 DB3Is data encrypted at rest? 2122200 DB4Is data encrypted in transit? 1000022 *Weighted Score = Weight * Score

16. Final Summary CompanyScoreCost PermaFax96$550000 WestFax52$750000 Faxify92$325000

17. How many projects? RFP process can take a long time Selection of vendor may significantly affect ROI Suggestion ▫Project 1: Solicit, RFP, ROI Reevaluation, Selection ▫Project 2: Implementation of Solution

18. Let’s flip the coin Responding to an RFP (through creation of a proposal) is another highly developed skillset in the government world. Proposals are the iconic schedule driven project. Being on time and barely meeting requirements is better than being one hour late and perfect.

19. Your schedule driven toolbox should have Laser focus on the reason for the project and the critical success factors “win themes” Daily visible progress of the deliverables and opportunities for feedback Iron clad version control of deliverables Color team like reviews

20. Win Themes – Proposals critical success factors Proof Benefit Feature

21. Applying to your project Our project reduces staff training time from four to two hours through a context sensitive help pop up that has been implemented in two other applications in our company.

22. Applying to your project Our project reduces staff training time from four to two hours through a context sensitive help pop up that has been implemented in two other applications in our company. Feature

23. Applying to your project Our project reduces staff training time from four to two hours through a context sensitive help pop up that has been implemented in two other applications in our company. Feature Benefit

24. Applying to your project Our project reduces staff training time from four to two hours through a context sensitive help pop up that has been implemented in two other applications in our company. Feature Benefit Proof

25. How does this help? A couple of powerful sentences that encapsulate your project help you keep executive stakeholders aligned and engaged in the project. Team can center on the most benefit rich features and less distracted by nice to haves. (Tip: To control scope creep, make the change request description follow these rules!)

26. Your friend, the proposal process Scope is fairly stable, time is fixed. Cost and quality are the only variables to play with Beg borrow and steal from the past. This is a team sport, make sure everyone plays. Plan it! (Pull down walls between your team, then put a wall around them) Version control and reviews is where to maximize majority of your planning hours

27. Deliverable Visibility Power resides in visible display of deliverables to all team members ▫Quick feedback delivery mechanism ▫Incentive for performance ▫Easy oversight for the project management team ▫Quick and dirty = low tech and that’s OK!

28. Color Team Reviews Pink Team Concepts Compliance to requirements Red Team Effective substantiation Coherent story Supports themes Gold “Perfection” All client concerns addressed

29. PM takeaways from Proposal Management Identify your “win themes” so you know exactly where to sacrifice scope, quality or cost as schedule slips. Evaluate “concepts” early and just as structured as you do final deliverables Give the team a frequently updated visible deliverable Use daily stand-ups and constant opportunities for feedback

30. About Red Mountain Services Project Management Consulting Staff Augmentation Training Feel free to e-mail me at stacy@red-mt.com with feedback, questions or for more informationstacy@red-mt.com