Study Plan — Student
A week-by-week solo path through the doctrine, the literacy, and the practice layer — for a student who is not in a live course (or who wants to run ahead of one). About 10 weeks at a comfortable pace; the college syllabus is the classroom version of the same journey.
How to use this plan. Each week: read, do, produce, check. "Check" means compare your work against the answer keys and re-read the doctrine if you missed. Keep the Ravonics case and the worked exemplar open throughout — they are your practice company and your model answer. Everything is stack-free: paper, a whiteboard, or a plain document.
Your materials: the doctrine (doctrine/), the literacy (literacy/), the practice bank (practice/exercises.md), the answer keys (practice/answer-keys.md), the worked exemplar, the Ravonics case.
Weeks 1–2 — Where the money lives and how it flows
- Read: doctrine/01 and doctrine/02; the literacy maps how-to-read-an-rfp and how-to-read-a-nofo (skim), and where-the-money-flows.
- Do: practice D01-E2, D01-E3, D02-E2.
- Produce: the money map (SC-E1): pick one agency, trace one dollar on USAspending.gov from appropriation to a past award.
- Check: answers D01-E2/E3, D02-E2, SC-E1 in the answer keys. Self-checks at the end of doctrine 01 and 02.
- Bonus: spend 30 minutes on SAM.gov and Grants.gov just looking — find one contract opportunity and one grant opportunity and note the identifiers visible in each.
Weeks 3–4 — The pipeline and the gates
- Read: doctrine/03 and doctrine/04.
- Do: practice D03-E2, D03-E3, D04-E2.
- Produce: (1) your one-page pipeline diagram (SC-E2 shape); (2) a gate charter (SI-E3 shape) for a pursuit you invent or borrow from the Ravonics case — write the criteria for the bid/no-bid, threshold, review, and readiness gates, with evidence and an owner for each.
- Check: answers D03-E2/E3, D04-E2, SI-E3. Self-checks at the end of doctrine 03 and 04.
- Bonus: watch one news story about a federal contract win/loss and place the company's activity on the pipeline.
Weeks 5–6 — Reading the documents for real
- Read: doctrine/02 again (now it will land), and the full how-to-read-an-rfp and how-to-read-a-nofo maps.
- Pick a real, closed solicitation from SAM.gov or Grants.gov — this is now your object for the rest of the plan.
- Do: practice D02-E3, and the compliance/strategy pair SC-E3 and SC-E4 on your solicitation.
- Produce: the compliance matrix (at least eight rows: every "shall," the section, where your response satisfies it) and the one-page strategy reading (what the evaluator actually cares about, from the weights and adjectives).
- Check: answers SC-E3, SC-E4 — and compare your matrix to the worked exemplar's Step 3 as a model.
Weeks 7–8 — The ORBITAL and the score
- Read: doctrine/05 and doctrine/06.
- Do: practice D05-E2, D05-E4, D06-E2.
- Produce: (1) the ORBITAL (D06-E3) for your solicitation, all seven axes; (2) the scored pursuit sheet (SC-E5): pWin argued factor by factor, value grounded in the solicitation's numbers, composite = pWin × value, a threshold set in advance, and a one-paragraph bid/no-bid recommendation.
- Check: answers D05-E2/E4, D06-E2/E3, SC-E5 — and compare your score and ORBITAL to the worked exemplar's Steps 2 and 4.
- Bonus: sensitivity-check your score — move your weakest factor down by 0.2 and re-run the arithmetic. Is the call still the same?
Weeks 9–10 — The lifecycle and the loop (your mini-capstone)
- Read: doctrine/07 and doctrine/08.
- Do: practice D07-E2, D07-E3, D08-E2, D08-E3.
- Produce: your mini-capstone (INT-E1): assemble everything from your solicitation into one package — compliance matrix, strategy reading, ORBITAL, score, gate charter, and the written bid/no-bid defense.
- Check: answers D07-E2/E3, D08-E2/E3; grade your capstone against the capstone rubric.
- Bonus: the post-mortem (INT-E2): if your solicitation's competition has already run, look up the actual published award. Who won, for how much? Update your pWin factors with what the outcome teaches. That is the learning loop, and it is the moment the course becomes a career skill.
If you have more time (the track accent)
Pick the track that matches your program and add its practice in weeks 8–10:
- Strategic Initiative — SI-E1, SI-E2 (portfolio), SI-E3 (gate charter).
- MBA — MBA-E1 (unit economics), MBA-E2 (price-to-win), MBA-E3 (flywheel).
- MPA — MPA-E1 (money flow), MPA-E2 (compliance comparison), MPA-E3 (policy memo).
All three tracks share the same doctrine, the same case, and the same capstone — the accent is what differs (modules/).