RELATIONSHIP OF THE SOW TO RFP SECTIONS L AND M

Responsibility for developing the SOW usually includes responsibility for developing the proposal preparation instructions in Section L and the evaluation factors in Section M. The SOW and RFP Sections L and M are directly related in several key ways, as illustrated in Figure 2-1.

FIGURE 2-1
Relationship of the SOW and RFP Sections L and M

Section M of the RFP contains information about how proposals will be evaluated, including the evaluation factors and their relative importance. These are developed by analyzing the SOW to identify those aspects of the requirement that are most important to the accomplishment of the work. They generally fall within the areas of technical, management, corporate experience, and cost, but the specific description and their relative importance depend on the contents of the SOW. The evaluation factors are set forth in Section M in descending order of importance, along with an indication of the relative importance of each factor.

Section L contains the solicitation provisions appropriate to the requirement and the proposal preparation instructions. These instructions provide guidance on how the government wants contractors’ proposals organized and what information the contractor should provide. The proposal preparation instructions are used to amplify the evaluation factors in Section M and the work requirements in the SOW. They provide an outline for the proposal format based on the evaluation factors listed in Section M and identify the specific information required in support of each evaluation factor.