Proposals and Agile, Challenge #1: We Often Lack Dedicated, Collocated Teams
Four weeks ago, I posted an article that discussed how
proposal management is in actuality project management. I pointed out how our
long-standing proposal best practices are Agile,
and have been Agile long before Agile was the latest industry craze. I have
been so pleased with the discussion that this article has sparked.
I have been building on some of these discussion points in a
series of articles focused on how we can expand the application of Agile in our
opportunity pursuit processes. First I discussed the role of stakeholders and explored how we can better integrate stakeholders into the business
development lifecycle. Then I looked at Scrum,
how our proposal best practices fit into the Scrum model, and how we can learn
further from Agile ideologies to improve our proposal processes. Next I
explored some common Agile tools,
and discussed how we might apply them to increase the efficiency of our
proposal processes. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll take a look at some
unique challenges that we face in proposals, highlight the implications, and
discuss how we must adapt to be successful.
Unique Challenge #1: We
Often Lack Dedicated, Collocated Teams
Agile and Scrum are all about close collaboration. The ideal
team would be assigned full-time to work on the project, sitting in the same
room, and would work on many projects consecutively. This removes barriers to
communication, eliminates the distraction of other duties and assignments, and
reduces the wasted time of new teams learning to work together. When the group
is spread out over different rooms, locations, and even time zones, it is too
easy for team members to delay their interaction, or simply avoid it and work
in silos. When the team is not assigned full-time, work is delayed even more as
individuals are forced to divide their attention between multiple projects and
tasks. This leads to a far less effective development effort.
In the good old days, more frequently we saw dedicated teams
working full-time on the proposal effort, collocated in war rooms, solving
problems, developing solutions, and marching forward together until the
proposal was submitted. In fact, most proposal best practices still preach this
as the ideal path forward. However, in today’s world, we see this scenario far
less frequently. It seems that corporate leadership less often recognizes the
value that these dedicated teams can provide. The reality is that even when
corporations are trying to implement Agile Software Development, we’re all
still stuck in a world of “we must do more with less,” and “we will save so
much money on travel costs with virtual teams.”
What Can We Do?
In a perfect world, our companies would automatically
recognize our plight and change corporate policy to support having dedicated
and collocated teams to support our proposal efforts. Although we cannot bank
on this happening, there are some things that we CAN do to facilitate smoother
proposal operations within our individual organizations: (1) educate corporate
leadership, (2) strive to have a dedicated core team, and (3) leverage software
for virtual teams.
1. Educate Corporate Leadership
It is our job as proposal professionals to help educate
corporate leadership on what we need to succeed—and to help the company
succeed. If the company is pursuing too many opportunities at once, and the
resources are stretched way too thin, the company is set up for failure, not
success. This is because in this situation, the probability of win is
significantly reduced for each opportunity. A company is much better off
submitting fewer, high-quality responses to very targeted opportunities than
submitting several, poor-quality proposals. We must help leadership understand
the criticality of smart bid decisions, the impact of resource constraints, the
value of dedicated teams where practical, and the importance of bringing in
extra help if you simply must pursue everything in the pipeline.
2. Strive to Have a Dedicated Core Proposal Team
The Core Proposal Team typically comprises the Capture
Manager, Proposal Manager, Proposal Coordinator, and Volume Managers. For
larger opportunities, the Core Proposal Team may also include a
Compliance/Integration Manager and/or Section Leads. This Core Proposal Team
works on the proposal from the planning process through submission. Ideally,
all members of the Core Proposal Team are dedicated to the proposal throughout
the proposal process. If that is not possible, the team should identify those
Core Proposal Team members that can be dedicated, and then build the team
around that group.
3. Leverage Collaboration Software for Virtual Teams
With the current business environment, it is more and more
common to have a dispersed proposal team and to use a virtual workspace. When
this is the case, the team must turn to collaboration software and tools,
including collaboration portals, telephone and/or video conferencing, and chat
applications.
Collaboration Portal: Collaboration portals establish a secure and organized repository for files and data.
Companies are increasingly turning to applications such as SharePoint, Privia, Virtual
Proposal Center (VPC), and even JIRA to facilitate management of the large
volume of files and data. The collaboration portal is used for writer
collaboration, color reviews, and final production. Collaborative
software applications also include features for version control. Since team
members post files from remote locations, it is critical to establish and
clearly name file libraries, directories, and security profiles early in the
proposal process.
Telephone and/or
Video Conferencing: Teleconferences and/or video conferences are important
in virtual proposals since they help bring the team together. To use these tools effectively, you should establish teleconferencing and
video conferencing protocols and ensure that all proposal team members understand
the protocols.
Chat Applications:
Chat applications help dispersed team members collaborate
quickly and effectively. Ensuring that all team members actively log into and
use the company’s preferred chat application can facilitate more frequent
and effective team collaboration.
These three tools can go a long way in helping your virtual
teams to succeed; however, virtual proposal development will only work if the
team members understand how to operate in the virtual environment. Team members
must be trained on the use of collaborative software, coordination
expectations, and proposal procedures before the team begins using the system.
This is essential to maintaining configuration control while providing an
environment conducive to collaboration. Even if team members claim to have used
the collaboration tool(s) before, it is helpful to provide refresher training
to go over key processes and features.
Final Thoughts
With Agile, success stems from collaboration—and it’s no different
with proposals. As our tried and true best practices have shown, this
collaboration supports a successful proposal development process. However, the
proposal development environment does create some unique challenges that we
must strive to conquer. We rarely have dedicated proposal teams and our teams
are not often all located in the same place. But there are ways we can tackle
these challenges head on. We can educate our corporate leadership on the
criticality of smart bid decisions, the impact of resource constraints, the
value of dedicated teams where practical, and the importance of bringing in
extra help if you simply must pursue everything in the pipeline. We can strive
to have a dedicated core proposal team wherever possible. And we can leverage
collaboration software when we have no other option than to have a virtual
team. Many of these challenges are not new, and we have been facing them for
years. By remaining disciplined and agile,
we can continue to overcome these hurdles and still find success in our
opportunity pursuit processes.
Written by Ashley Kayes, CP APMP
Senior Proposal Consultant, AOC Key Solutions, Inc. (KSI)
Comments
Post a Comment