Methodology

Shipley-aligned proposal management, powered by AI

The Shipley method defines how winning teams move from opportunity to submission. Projectory right-sizes it for modern teams and accelerates every phase with AI.

96

activities / 7 phases

F100

companies use Shipley

40-60%

win rate lift

10.5K+

APMP members

What is the Shipley method?

The Shipley Business Development Lifecycle is a structured methodology for winning competitive proposals. Codified in the late 1990s, it breaks business development into 96 discrete activities across 7 phases, each with defined gates and milestones. Before Shipley, most teams treated proposals as a writing exercise. Shipley reframed it as a lifecycle that starts months before the RFP drops.

96

Activities

7

Phases

47

Countries

Industry adoption

When companies post proposal manager jobs, "Shipley process" is among the most common required qualifications, alongside APMP certification. A large portion of Fortune 100 companies use Shipley or Shipley-derived processes for their proposal operations.

The 7 Shipley phases

From market research to lessons learned. Skipping phases is the most common reason teams lose winnable deals.

0

Market Segmentation

Identify target markets, agencies, and contract vehicles. Analyze past win/loss data. Allocate BD resources to highest-value segments.

Gate: Portfolio investment decision: which markets to pursue
1

Long-Term Positioning

Build relationships 12-24 months before expected solicitations. Attend industry days, publish thought leadership, meet program managers, shape requirements.

Gate: Customer awareness and relationship readiness assessment
2

Opportunity Assessment

Evaluate specific opportunities against defined criteria: capability fit, win probability, investment justification. Formal scoring framework for Go/No-Go.

Gate: Go/No-Go decision: pursue or pass
3

Capture Planning

Develop win strategy: competitive analysis, teaming decisions, solution development, customer engagement. Build the strategic blueprint for the pursuit.

Gate: Capture readiness review: strategy approved
4

Proposal Planning

Build compliance matrix, create proposal outline, assign writers, schedule reviews, conduct Pink Team on storyboards or annotated outlines.

Gate: Pink Team gate: outline and compliance confirmed
5

Proposal Development

Write, review, revise, produce. Structured around color team reviews: Pink Team on early drafts, Red Team simulating evaluation, Gold Team for sign-off.

Gate: Red Team / Gold Team gate: ready to submit
6

Post-Submission

Prepare for orals/discussions, respond to clarification requests, conduct debriefs after award/loss, capture lessons learned for future pursuits.

Gate: Lessons learned captured and fed back to Phases 0-3

Key insight: Most teams focus exclusively on Phase 5 (writing). The Shipley methodology argues that Phases 0-4 determine the outcome. By the time you start writing, the win or loss has largely been decided.

Color team reviews

Quality gates that separate high-performing proposal operations from "everybody mark it up in Word."

Blue Team

When

Before writing begins

Purpose

Strategy and win theme review

Key question

Do we have a winning strategy?

Pink Team

When

20-25% complete

Purpose

Structural and compliance review of outlines/storyboards

Key question

Are we answering what they asked?

Red Team

When

66-75% complete

Purpose

Simulated evaluation against RFP criteria

Key question

Would this proposal score well?

Green Team

When

Concurrent with Red Team

Purpose

Pricing review and validation

Key question

Is the pricing competitive and defensible?

Gold Team

When

Final review before submission

Purpose

Executive review and approval

Key question

Are we ready to submit?

Reviews are not editing sessions. Reviewers evaluate against specific criteria and provide actionable feedback. Writers incorporate that feedback. Blurring the line between reviewer and writer creates confusion, delays, and inconsistent voice.

How Projectory powers each Shipley phase

Projectory covers Phases 2-5 end-to-end — from opportunity assessment through submission. Here's exactly what each phase looks like inside the platform.

Phase 0: Market Segmentation

Pre-capture. Pair with your CRM and GovWin/FPDS for pipeline building.

Not Covered

Phase 1: Long-Term Positioning

Pre-capture. Account planning and relationship building.

Not Covered

Phase 2: Opportunity Assessment

V8 Decision Engine: Dealbreaker Screening + P-Win Predictor

Built

Upload the solicitation and get an instant Go/No-Go recommendation. The V8 engine scores 8 dimensions — competitive position, past performance fit, team readiness, compliance burden, pricing alignment, technical fit, customer relationship, and contract vehicle access — then surfaces dealbreakers before you invest a dollar.

Phase 3: Capture Planning

Win Theme Builder, Competitive Gap Analysis, Team Assessor

Built

Projectory extracts evaluation criteria from Section M and generates win themes mapped to each factor. The competitive analyzer identifies where you're strong, where incumbents are vulnerable, and what discriminators the evaluator will weight highest.

Phase 4: Proposal Planning

AI Compliance Matrix, Section Outline Generator, Writer Assignments

Built

AI reads the full solicitation package — base RFP, amendments, CDRLs, Q&A responses — and extracts every requirement into a compliance matrix in minutes. Each requirement maps to a proposal section, an owner, and a status. The outline generator creates section storyboards aligned to Section L structure.

Phase 5: Proposal Development

AI Drafting Engine, Content Library, Real-Time Compliance Tracker

Built

Writers get AI-generated first drafts based on requirements, win themes, and reusable content from past proposals. The compliance tracker shows coverage in real time — which requirements are addressed, which have gaps, and which sections need review. Every draft links back to the specific requirement it addresses.

Phase 5: Color Reviews

Structured Review Workflows with AI Pre-Scoring

Built

Built-in Pink Team and Red Team workflows. AI pre-scores each section against evaluation criteria before human reviewers spend time, so reviewers focus on strategic gaps instead of catching missing requirements. Submit, comment, approve, and reject with full audit trail.

Phase 6: Post-Submission

Debrief Capture, Win/Loss Analytics, Content Recycling

Planned

Capture debrief findings tied to specific proposal sections. Win/loss patterns feed back into the P-Win model so future Go/No-Go decisions improve. Winning content gets tagged and indexed for reuse.

Right-sizing Shipley for your team

The full 96-activity checklist assumes separate BD, capture, and proposal departments. Here is what matters most and what to simplify.

Keep these

High-impact practices that work at any team size

  • Go/No-Go discipline

    prevents spreading across too many pursuits

  • Win themes

    3-5 clear reasons the evaluator should choose you

  • Pink Team review

    catches structural problems at the 20-25% mark

  • Red Team review

    simulates evaluation before submission

  • Compliance matrix

    maps every requirement to your response

  • Lessons learned

    30-minute post-mortem that compounds over time

Simplify these

Valuable for large orgs but can be streamlined for smaller teams

  • Full Blue Team reviews

    fold into capture planning for small teams

  • Gold Team as standalone review

    merge into final QC check

  • Formal storyboarding for simple proposals

    use annotated outlines instead

  • Separate Green Team for pricing

    combine with Red Team or final QC

How Projectory accelerates every Shipley phase

Your team owns the strategy. Projectory handles the mechanical work that burns 60-70% of proposal effort — extraction, compliance tracking, first drafts, and review prep.

40-60%

Win rate improvement with structured process

52%

Of companies don’t provide capture training

37%

Of proposal managers report frequent errors

V8 Decision Engine (Go/No-Go)

Phases 2-3

Upload a solicitation and Projectory's V8 engine scores it across 8 dimensions in minutes. Surfaces dealbreakers, calculates P-Win, and generates a data-backed Go/No-Go recommendation — replacing the gut-feel spreadsheet your team uses today.

From days of manual assessment to a scored recommendation in under an hour

AI Compliance Matrix Builder

Phase 4

Projectory reads the full solicitation package — base RFP, amendments, CDRLs, and Q&A responses — and extracts every 'shall', 'must', and 'will' into a structured compliance matrix. Each requirement maps to a section, owner, and status.

4-8 hours of manual extraction done in minutes with 95%+ coverage

AI Drafting with Win Theme Integration

Phase 5

Writers get first drafts generated from requirements, win themes, past performance, and your content library. Every paragraph links back to the specific requirement it addresses so compliance is built in, not checked after.

Writers edit and refine instead of staring at blank pages

AI-Powered Review Workflows

Phase 5

Before your Red Team spends 3 days reviewing, Projectory pre-scores every section against evaluation criteria. Reviewers see exactly where gaps exist, which requirements lack evidence, and which win themes are undersold.

Red Team catches strategic issues instead of compliance gaps

The multiplier effect: A five-person proposal team with AI tools can execute a process that previously required 15-20 people. The strategic framework stays the same. The labor model changes.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about the Shipley method and how Projectory supports it

What is the difference between Shipley and APMP?
Shipley Associates created the original business development lifecycle methodology in the late 1990s. APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) later adopted and expanded on Shipley concepts to create the APMP Body of Knowledge (BOK). Think of Shipley as the original framework and APMP as the professional association that standardized and certifies practitioners in proposal management. Many professionals use both terms interchangeably, though they are technically distinct.
Do I need Shipley certification to use these tools?
No. Projectory is designed to be useful whether your team has formal Shipley training or not. The platform embeds Shipley-aligned workflows so that teams naturally follow best practices like structured Go/No-Go decisions, compliance tracking, and review milestones without needing to memorize the 96-activity checklist.
Can small businesses use the Shipley method?
Yes, but it requires adaptation. The full Shipley methodology assumes dedicated business development, capture, and proposal departments. Small businesses should focus on the highest-impact elements: Go/No-Go discipline, win themes, compliance matrices, and at least one structured review (Pink or Red Team). Projectory helps small teams apply these concepts without the overhead of a full Shipley implementation.
What are color team reviews?
Color team reviews are structured evaluation milestones used during proposal development. Each color represents a different review stage: Blue Team reviews strategy before writing, Pink Team reviews outlines at 20-25% completion, Red Team simulates the government evaluation at 66-75% completion, Green Team reviews pricing, and Gold Team conducts the final executive review. These are business development checkpoints, not editing sessions.
How does AI fit into the Shipley process?
AI modernizes Shipley by automating labor-intensive steps while preserving the decision frameworks. Automated compliance matrices replace manual requirement tracking. AI-drafted proposal sections accelerate Phase 5 writing. AI pre-scoring before human Red Team reviews catches issues earlier. The methodology stays the same; the execution gets faster.
Is Projectory Shipley-certified?
Projectory is Shipley-aligned, not Shipley-certified. Our workflow maps to Shipley phases and supports teams that follow the Shipley methodology, but we are not formally certified by Shipley Associates. That said, our platform embeds Shipley principles into every step — from structured Go/No-Go decisions (Phase 2) through compliance-driven proposal development (Phase 5) — so teams follow best practices without needing to memorize the framework.
How does Projectory help teams that are new to Shipley?
Projectory embeds Shipley workflows into the platform so teams naturally follow best practices without formal training. The V8 Decision Engine enforces structured Go/No-Go discipline. The compliance matrix builder ensures no requirement gets missed. Review workflows create natural Pink Team and Red Team checkpoints. Teams get the benefits of a Shipley-aligned process from day one, with the AI handling the mechanical overhead that makes the full 96-activity checklist impractical for smaller organizations.

Build proposals the Shipley way, at AI speed

Structured phases, decision gates, and color team reviews with AI handling the mechanical work so your team focuses on winning.

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