DL 480 — Capstone: Build an ORBITAL
The final assessment of the Bachelor's program. You will take a real, published, closed solicitation and produce the full pursuit package — compliance reading, ORBITAL, score, bid/no-bid recommendation, and the gates that govern the pursuit — then defend it, then do the post-mortem against the actual award. This course extends the shared capstone brief in course/capstone-build-an-orbital.md with the undergraduate program's specific requirements.
Course number: DL 480 · Credit hours: 3 · Term: 14 weeks · Audience: senior undergraduates · Prerequisites: DL 210, DL 220, and two upper-division electives · Tier: capstone (Year 4, Spring) · Texts: this repository — the full doctrine, the literacy maps, and the Ravonics case · Tools: none required beyond paper, a whiteboard, or a spreadsheet. Stack-free by design (doctrine/08).
The shared brief
This capstone is built on the repository's shared capstone, course/capstone-build-an-orbital.md. Read that brief first; it defines the five deliverables every capstone must produce:
- Solicitation mastery — the compliance matrix and the strategy reading.
- The ORBITAL — the seven-axis structure, with real content.
- The score and the bid/no-bid call — pWin, value, composite, and the call.
- Governance and gates — the gates the pursuit would cross, with criteria and owners.
- The presentation — 15 minutes, defended against a skeptical panel.
This undergraduate extension adds the requirements, the timeline, and the post-mortem that make it a fitting close to a four-year degree.
The undergraduate additions
Beyond the shared brief, the undergraduate capstone requires:
A. A written gate charter, in advance. Before you build the ORBITAL, you write the criteria for every gate the pursuit will cross — bid/no-bid, threshold, review, readiness. The criteria come first, exactly as the doctrine demands (doctrine/04). Your final score and call are then judged against the criteria you wrote in Week 3, not the ones you would write after you know the answer.
B. A pricing position. Where the shared brief asks for a value estimate, the undergraduate capstone requires the full price-to-win frame from DL 220: cost floor, competitive range, evaluation posture, and a recommended price with a basis of estimate for the largest line items. The pricing volume is one page, stack-free, and the arithmetic is shown.
C. A teaming and vehicle note. One page on the structural questions from DL 303: what shape of contract, what vehicle, what teaming posture, and what floors the team must respect. This feeds the ORBITAL's transport and logistics axes.
D. A data-grounded score. The pWin must be argued factor-by-factor with evidence, and at least two of the factor scores must cite public data (a past award, an incumbent record, a forecast). One un-sourced pWin factor costs the score points — the data discipline of DL 304 applies.
E. A portfolio frame. One page placing this pursuit in a three-opportunity portfolio for the company (Ravonics by default), with the capacity budget and the allocation. The capstone is judged not just as one pursuit but as a portfolio decision.
F. The post-mortem (graded). The shared brief makes the post-mortem optional-but-encouraged. In the undergraduate capstone it is graded: after your presentation, you look up the actual award — who won, for how much, why that might have happened — and update your pWin factors with what you learned. This is the learning loop (doctrine/03, stage 9) made visible, and it is the moment the degree becomes a career skill.
Teams
Teams of 3–4, each member owning at least one deliverable (compliance, ORBITAL, score/pricing, gates/portfolio). The team presents together; the defense is individual — each member defends their own slice.
The 14-week timeline
| Week | Milestone | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Program-level kickoff: the capstone, the shared brief, the rubric. | Team formed; solicitation shortlist |
| 2 | Choose your solicitation (instructor approval). Confirm it is closed. | Solicitation chosen; team roles assigned |
| 3 | Write the gate charter — the criteria in advance. | Gate charter (graded, criteria before the work) |
| 4 | Compliance pass: every "shall." | Compliance matrix draft |
| 5 | Strategy reading: what the agency cares about. | Strategy reading draft |
| 6 | ORBITAL draft: all seven axes with sourced content. | ORBITAL draft |
| 7 | Midpoint workshop: gate charter + ORBITAL reviewed by instructor. | Revised ORBITAL |
| 8 | Score: pWin factor-by-factor with data-grounded evidence. | Score draft |
| 9 | Value and price-to-win: floor, competitive range, recommended price, BOE. | Pricing position draft |
| 10 | Gates and governance: every gate, criteria, owner; the portfolio frame. | Gates + portfolio draft |
| 11 | Teaming and vehicle note; integration of all pieces. | Full draft package |
| 12 | Color-team workshop — the class runs a pink/red pass on each team's package. | Color-team findings log |
| 13 | Final revisions; dry-run of the presentation. | Review-ready package |
| 14 | Presentation and defense; post-mortem. | Final package + post-mortem |
Assessment and rubric
The shared capstone rubric (course/assessments-and-rubric.md, Layer 3) governs, with the undergraduate additions weighted in:
| Dimension | Points | What the undergraduate extension adds |
|---|---|---|
| Solicitation mastery | 20 | Compliance matrix at full coverage; strategy reading |
| ORBITAL quality | 25 | All seven axes sourced; the teaming-and-vehicle note feeds transport/logistics |
| Score and bid/no-bid | 20 | Data-grounded pWin; full price-to-win position with BOE |
| Governance and gates | 15 | The gate charter written in advance; the portfolio frame |
| Presentation and defense | 20 | Individual defense of each member's slice |
| Post-mortem | (bonus, +0 to +10, capped at 100) | Actual award found; pWin factors updated; lesson stated |
Policies worth stating plainly
- Stack-free. You may use paper, a whiteboard, a spreadsheet, or a word processor. Your deliverable may never depend on a specific product or system. If your presentation requires a particular piece of software, you have missed the point of the degree (doctrine/08).
- Real documents, safe exercises. Your solicitation is real, published, and closed. Nothing you produce bears on a live competition.
- Criteria before the call. The gate charter is graded in Week 3, before the work. Your final call is judged against the criteria you wrote, not the criteria you wish you had.
- Academic integrity. Do not fabricate evidence, invent a past-performance record, or misstate an award. The post-mortem is graded on honest comparison, not on being right.
The capstone in one sentence
Four years of doctrine, documents, and discipline converge in one package: a real solicitation, a defensible ORBITAL, a data-grounded score and price, a gate charter written in advance, a portfolio call — and, after the defense, the honest post-mortem that turns the degree into a career skill.