MIL STD- Work Breakdown Structures for Defense Materiel Items

2.5 Request for Proposals (RFP).
2.5.1 Preparing a Preliminary Contract WBS.

The DoD program manager will select the individual WBS elements from the Program WBS that apply to the contract to include in the RFP as described in Section 2.3. This is the first opportunity for open dialogue between the Government and potential contractors. Acquisition approaches (e.g., a Performance Based Acquisition strategy) need to be outlined in the RFP and be inclusive to how the Government will measure technical performance. Technical measures of performance can be allocated to WBS elements. Innovative ideas or promising alternative solutions should be considered for inclusion in the RFP. The RFP will include a Contract WBS and the initial WBS dictionary. The RFP will instruct potential contractors to extend the selected Contract WBS elements to define the complete contract scope, consistent with the contractor’s proposed approach for executing the program.

2.5.2 RFP Solicitation Requirements. CLINs, configuration items, contract work statement tasks, contract specifications, and contractor responses should relate to the WBS so as to enhance its effectiveness in fully describing acquisition objectives. It is important to coordinate the development of the Program WBS and the CSDR plan with the development of the SOW to ensure consistency in document structure. When aggregated with the Program WBS, the extended Contract WBS will form a complete Program WBS, thus providing a logical work flow throughout the acquisition cycle.