DL 102 — Reading the Solicitation

The document course. The most transferable skill in the discipline: read a solicitation like a professional — compliance pass first, strategy pass second, and the evaluation criteria as the center of gravity.

Course number: DL 102 · Credit hours: 3 · Term: 14 weeks, one 75-minute session per week (plus independent reading and assignments) · Audience: first-year undergraduates · Prerequisites: DL 101 (or co-requisite) · Tier: introductory (Year 1, Spring) · Texts: this repository — the doctrine and the RFP/NOFO literacy maps · Tools: none required beyond a web browser for SAM.gov and Grants.gov. Stack-agnostic by design (doctrine/08).

Doctrine spine

doctrine/02 (RFPs, NOFOs, and solicitations) is the spine, supported by doctrine/01 (contract vs. grant) and doctrine/05 (scoring, for the bid/no-bid reading). The reading maps in literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md and literacy/how-to-read-a-nofo.md are the reference layer; the glossary and acronym decoder are open beside you the whole term.

Where this course sits in the program

This is the document course. DL 101 taught you the world the documents live in; DL 102 teaches you to read the documents themselves. Every later course — the capture pipeline, pricing, the electives, the capstone — assumes you can open a real RFP or NOFO and find the six questions, the Section L rules, the Section M weights, and the deadline without help.

Ladder: DL 101 (or co-req). Serves as the prerequisite for DL 210 and DL 220, and as a soft prerequisite for DL 301 and DL 302.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, a student can:

• Explain why the solicitation exists: the instrument of fairness in public spending.
• Name the solicitation shapes (RFI, RFQ, RFP, NOFO, IDIQ/task order) and read each one as a posture.
• Locate the six questions every solicitation answers, in any agency's format.
• Map the uniform contract format (Sections A–M) and explain what Section L and Section M each do.
• Build a compliance matrix from a real RFP: every "shall," with its page, mapped to where a response would satisfy it.
• Read for strategy: what the agency actually cares about, read from the evaluation weights and the intent behind the "shall"s.
• Apply the same skills to a NOFO: program purpose, eligibility, review criteria, budget, deadlines.
• Manage the two-deadline trap and the invisible third deadline (your own internal review).
• Make a defensible bid/no-bid call from a 15-minute scan of a document.

How the course works

The course moves in three movements:

1. Weeks 1–6 — The RFP. The six questions, the A–M anatomy, Section L as the rules of the game, Section M as the rubric you are graded against.
2. Week 7 — Midterm. Break down a real RFP in class.
3. Weeks 8–13 — The NOFO, the matrix, and the call. The grants sibling, the compliance matrix, the strategy reading, deadlines and amendments, and the 15-minute scan to a bid/no-bid.
4. Week 14 — Final. A solicitation reading portfolio built on one real RFP and one real NOFO.

Every week you read a real document. By the end you will have read the same kind of documents a professional capture team reads — and built the tools (compliance matrix, strategy reading, bid/no-bid sheet) they build.

Weekly schedule

Week	Theme	In-session (75 min)	Reading (doctrine / literacy)	Assignment due next week
1	The solicitation as a conversation	Why the document exists: fairness, published rules, committed evaluation. What a solicitation is and is not.	doctrine/02	One-page "what is a solicitation" explainer in your own words
2	Solicitation shapes	RFI / RFQ / RFP / NOFO / IDIQ-task order. Each shape as a posture: shopping, pricing, full pursuit, grant pursuit, standing doorway.	doctrine/02; literacy/glossary	A one-page shape chart: five shapes, what each signals, when each appears
3	The six questions	What is being bought? Who is eligible? How will we be judged? When? How must we respond? Where must it go?	doctrine/02	Find all six answers in one real RFP (cite the sections)
4	The uniform contract format	Sections A–M. The two sections to know by heart: L (instructions) and M (evaluation factors).	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md	A one-page A–M map of a real RFP — fill in what each section holds for that document
5	Section L — the rules of the game	Volumes, page limits, format, required content, submission mechanics. The rule: comply literally.	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md	A one-page Section L brief: every format rule in the RFP, in checklist form
6	Section M — the evaluation plan	The factors, the weights, the adjectives for "excellent." The proposal is written to this rubric.	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md	A one-page Section M brief: the factors, weights, and what "excellent" looks like per the agency
7	Midterm	In class: break down a real RFP — six questions, Section L rules, Section M weights, compliance vs. strategy reading.	(review week)	Midterm submission
8	The NOFO — the grants sibling	Same game, different rulebook. RFP buys your services; NOFO funds your mission.	literacy/how-to-read-a-nofo.md; doctrine/01	A one-page "RFP vs. NOFO" comparison table
9	The NOFO review criteria	The center of gravity of the grants world. Write to the criteria; mirror the scoring.	literacy/how-to-read-a-nofo.md	A one-page review-criteria brief for a real NOFO
10	The compliance matrix	Every "shall," every page limit, every certification — tracked to where the response satisfies it. The backbone of the review gates.	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md; doctrine/02	Start your course compliance matrix: every "shall" you can find in your RFP
11	The strategy reading	What does the evaluator actually care about? The intent behind the "shall"s. Compliance is the floor; strategy is the win.	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md; doctrine/02	A one-page strategy reading of your RFP: the story the proposal must tell
12	Deadlines, amendments, the two-deadline trap	The questions deadline, the submission deadline, and the invisible third deadline: your internal review. Amendments as living documents.	literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md; doctrine/02	A one-page deadline-and-amendment log for your RFP
13	The 15-minute scan to bid/no-bid	The professional's first pass: scope, deadline, evaluation, eligibility → a defensible recommendation.	doctrine/05; literacy/how-to-read-an-rfp.md	A scored bid/no-bid sheet for your RFP (pWin factors, value, recommendation)
14	Final: solicitation reading portfolio	Present your portfolio: A–M map, Section L brief, Section M brief, compliance matrix, strategy reading, bid/no-bid sheet. Panel Q&A.	(review week)	Final portfolio submission

Assessment summary

• Weekly assignments — 30% (each a concrete artifact: a chart, a brief, a matrix).
• Midterm — 25% (breaking down a real RFP in class).
• Final solicitation reading portfolio — 30% (the artifacts from Weeks 4–13, presented and defended).
• Participation and peer review — 15%.

Rubric per course/assessments-and-rubric.md: the 4-point scale on correctness, completeness, doctrine use, and clarity.

The midterm

In class, with a real (published, closed) RFP you have not seen before, produce in 75 minutes:

1. The six questions — answered from the document, with sections cited.
2. Section L — the format rules, page limits, and submission mechanics, in checklist form.
3. Section M — the evaluation factors, weights, and what "excellent" looks like.
4. Compliance vs. strategy — one paragraph on the compliance floor, and one on the strategic story the proposal must tell.
5. The call — a one-paragraph bid/no-bid recommendation with the reasoning.

The trap being tested: students who write a beautiful proposal-shaped essay instead of reading the document as the agency wrote it. The midterm rewards reading, not writing.

Policies worth stating plainly

• The doctrine is the course. Every assignment tests the concept, never a tool. If an assignment ever seems to require knowledge of a specific product or system, that is a bug in the assignment — flag it.
• Real documents, safe exercises. We read real RFPs and NOFOs, but always published, closed ones. You never submit anything live in this course.
• Late work. The pipeline has deadlines; so does the course. The one professional grace: an honest early warning beats a silent late submission.
• Academic integrity. The federal market runs on trust in a fair, documented process. This course models that. Cite your sources; do not fabricate evidence; be the person the market can trust.

The course in one sentence

By Week 14 you will have read a real RFP and a real NOFO the way a professional reads them — compliance matrix in hand, evaluation weights memorized, and a bid/no-bid call you can defend — and you will have discovered that the ability to read a solicitation is the most transferable skill in the entire discipline.