Proposal-XML – A Proposed Standard for Proposal Development and Analysis

What is XML?

XML is short for Extensible Markup Language, a specification developed by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C). It allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations.

These tags roughly correspond to the sections of a document, and therefore provide a structure for that document-or any other document that also follows that structure. Unlike HTML, another well-known markup language, the focus is content, not format.

For example, most newspaper articles have some or all of the following components: headline; subheader; date; byline; 1st paragraph; body paragraph; conclusion. An XML schema for newspaper articles, therefore, would have labels for each of these different components of each newspaper article.

XML does not strictly do anything. It is not a software program. It is an enabling technology that allows software to recognize content and treat that content as an object to transport, arrange, or manipulate in some fashion.

XML is useful as a way to describe the content of documents by labeling the different components of that content according to a standard schema. This standard schema, then, facilitates the creation of new information, the archiving of already-created information, and the retrieval of archived information.

To continue the newspaper article example: if a newspaper company were to use those XML labels for all of their newspaper articles, then they would be able to store all of their articles in a database, searchable by any of the XML labels that they have used to categorize their content. Also, they would be able to analyze their stored articles according to their content or their structure. Finally, they would be able to create new articles based on the structure and format indicated by their XML style sheets.

Current Use of XML

XML is a standard for structuring content, utilized by many professions worldwide. Many of these professions have used XML as a foundation for profession-specific XML standards, allowing participation companies to use XML to structure their content, while maintaining standards and best practices across their profession.

What is P-XML?

P-XML is a standard being developed by APMP members to create a common language and frame of reference from which to describe professional best practices for proposal creation. It will describe an XML schema that specifically refers to proposal structure and content.

The proposed P-XML schema will consist of a vocabulary that describes the various sections that comprise a proposal, providing a foundation for the creation of proposals within a consistent, defined structure. For example, P-XML will have labels for the various sections that are common to most proposals: Cover Letter, Executive Summary, System Description, etc.

Application of XML to Proposal Creation

There are two primary types of proposals:

• Responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), which are published by entities intent on acquiring solutions, products, and services. Responses are provided either as interleaved responses (often referred to as point-by-point responses) to questions contained in the RFP, or stand-alone proposal responses.
• Custom, unsolicited offers to solve customers’ problems, usually based on the offerer’s tried-and-true formula for such communications.

Generally, these proposals are also developed in the following ways:

• A combination of custom writing and re-use of sections from other completed proposals. Writers typically read through previously created proposals that are similar to the current proposal effort in order to see what sections can be copied or slightly altered to fit. This can be an extremely time-consuming effort, with the user depending upon the search capabilities of the software program(s) used to generate the reference proposals.
• Automated proposal generators, which draw boilerplate from databases or text collections and combine this information with data supplied by the user via a graphical user interface (GUI).

This situation makes XML an appropriate tool to use in the creation of proposals, because it can be used to define a language that will describe the structure of most-if not all-proposals. This common language can be used as a foundation to create software tools that greatly simplify the search for and re-use of previously created proposal text.

What are the benefits of P-XML?

The benefits of a P-XML standard abound for each of the industry groups engaged in the development and analysis of proposals. For proposal and acquisition professionals, P-XML:

• Increases the consistency of output between proposals generated by different tools and from different vendors
• Drives industry best practices by simplifying both the creation and evaluation processes of proposals
• Allows prime contractor and subcontractors to easily exchange proposal content among themselves in order to create a single proposal response
• Increases the consistency of output between proposals that are generated by different vendors using different tools
• Allows proposals to be easily exchanged between the entities requesting proposals and those responding to them
• Makes proposals software-tools independent so users have a choice of software vendors

• Allows proposals to be purposefully and intelligently searched, indexed, and analyzed for use, updating, and re-use

P-XML benefits the software companies who create proposal development and analysis tools by:

• Enabling the creation of integrated, automated tools that make it easier to create, compare, and analyze proposals
• Expanding the potential market for software tools based on industry standards
• Alleviating the amount of resources devoted to designing software that can manage the infinite varieties of proposal structures-allowing those resources to be spent developing software features for proposal creation

Lastly, APMP will reap great benefits by endorsing and stewarding the development and adoption of P-XML as a professional standard. APMP will:

• Increase its leadership in the science of proposals
• Provide best practices guidance to the proposal community
• Create a venue for members' participation in evolving the profession
• Demonstrate leadership in the business-to-business information interchange

What are the Technical Specifications of P-XML?

APMP and its P-XML consortium member companies have agreed agree that the best way to implement the proposal XML standard is to use an XML schema. An XML schema describes the structure of an XML document.

The initial, draft version of P-XML follows standard XML schema and syntax principles and rules. The P-XML Working Group, which included representatives from Microsoft, Pragmatech Software, Inc., the Sant Corporation, Shipley Associates and APMP, consulted domain, technology, and standards experts as they developed the schema.

Availability

P-XML is provided to adopters through a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, non-sublicenseable, worldwide license. There are no trademarks associated with P-XML, and a limited patent licensing obligation. Contributions or feedback are subject to executing the Contribution and Feedback License Agreement.

For More Information

For more information on P-XML or to join the APMP Task Force, a forum for evaluation, input, comments and contributions to P-XML, please contact Neil Cobb.