A situation goal proposal (or STP) statement is a succinct summary of why you think there is a problem to solve or an opportunity to take advantage of (the situation); what you hope to achieve from it (the Goal); and how you suggest doing it (the Proposal). These are all important requirements for developing an innovative procurement sourcing strategy.

The first key step in writing an effective STP is to establish the facts and describe the current situation. Sometimes opinions or guesses are disguised as facts, so you need to provide evidence. Ask yourself these questions:-

• How can I describe this situation?

• What do I know about it? Use the keywords “what, who, why, where, when, and how” to create individual award descriptions.

• Is it facts, opinions or conjecture?

• What data do I need to collect to validate the facts and turn opinion and guesswork into fact?

• How urgent is it?

You will then be in a position to precisely define the current situation in a way that is specific and actionable. A vague situation that cannot be resolved will only lead to frustration and abandonment of the sourcing project.

The second key step is to set your goal. A good way to do this is to use the previous step as a starting point and then describe what a better future situation might look like. Questions you can use for this step include the following:

• How do I describe success?

• What are the main differences with the current situation?

• What does this suggest my goals should be?

• Are any of these goals in conflict?

• How will I measure these goals?

• What data do I need to collect to produce the measurements?

• What will be my initial goals for these measures?

This last point gives you the goals for your STP statement.

The third key step is to define your proposal on how you will achieve your goal and thereby secure the opportunity or solve the problem you defined in the statement step. Good questions for this step are:-

• What are the specific actions that need to be performed?

• Who will make them?

• When?

• What will they need to make this happen?

• What restrictions must be recognized?

• Does any of this change our description of the situation or alter our goals?