DARPA DARPA Small Business Planning Tool beta
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Introduction

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Welcome to the DARPA Small Business Planning Tool (SBPT)

The DARPA Small Business Programs Office has developed this tool to help small businesses define and prioritize the most important next steps in their path towards technology transition. Please review the browser requirements and the links below before getting started.

As this is a beta version of the DARPA Small Business Planning Tool, we look forward to receiving your comments and recommendations for improvements. A feedback form will be available for you upon completion of your self-assessment with the tool.

What is the DARPA SBPT?

The DARPA Small Business Planning Tool (SBPT) is a self-assessment tool to help your company define or refine your commercialization strategy, assess the status of your current transition plan, and prioritize the important next steps to transition the technology/component/product you are developing into DoD and other federal and commercial markets.

Small Venn diagram
    Key Components:
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Market
This exercise is intended to help assess progress and is not required by the DARPA SBIR/STTR program.

More Information

How to use the SBPT

  • Completing this exercise will take approximately 30-60 minutes.
  • You must complete each section fully before your transition strategy report can be produced completely, but you are not required to complete them in order.
    • Bookmark Example
  • If you cannot complete the process in one session, you can click Bookmark Progress to save your progress.
    If cookies are enabled, your progress will also be saved as a cookie in your browser. This will be done automatically when you make any changes to your answers. When you are ready to continue, your answers can be recalled by selecting the bookmark you created, otherwise it will be done automatically from the cookie.
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Distribution Statement A. Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited.

What is the DARPA Small Business Planning Tool

This experience is intended to help companies assess their own progress and is not required by the DARPA SBIR/STTR program.


This interactive tutorial will help you understand the relationships among the technology being developed, the market in which the technology will be used, and the business practices of getting the technology to the market. Together, decisions in these three areas form the transition strategy.


Technology, Market and Business Components overlap to become the Transition Strategy

The Technology Component provides a system view for maturing the technology to meet the needs of the end user.


The Business Component brings together the revenue, financing, and partnership options for creating a product line or business.


The Market Component provides insights on markets/competitors to refine the technology solution and revenue model, and fund technology development.




Because the three components represent distinct domains that must be managed together for success, we recommend assembling an integrated transition team to work together to develop and then implement the transition plan.


The Objectives of this Business Planning Tool are to:

    • Encourage companies to think about their transition strategy early.
    • Help companies identify a Transition Pathway.
    • Educate companies about key variables that will need to be addressed.
    • Provide a summary of the most important next steps to pursue.

How to use the DARPA Small Business Planning Tool

  • Clicking on the Next button will advance you through the questions within each section, while clicking on Previous will take you back through the section.
  • Once a section is complete, the circle beneath the section tab (i.e. Technology, Business and Market) will turn green.
  • A section will be marked as 'In Progress' and will have a yellow circle.
  • Once all three sections are complete, the circle beneath the Report tab will also turn green.
  • You may save your transition strategy report as a PDF in the end.
  • All progress in this tool will be saved as a cookie in your browser. This cookie will be tied to the browser that you access the tool in.
  • If you close or leave the page without clicking on the "Bookmark" button, your answers will be lost.
  • Should you have any questions using this tool, please visit the Help Menu.

More detailed information on how to help your company define and prioritize the most important next steps towards transitioning your technology can be found in the DARPA Transition Planning Guide.


This guide covers the unique aspects of transitioning technology funded by the DARPA SBIR/STTR programs, and provides a framework that integrates three component - technology, business, and market - for Phase II companies to augment their commercialization strategy for implementation and, if Phase I, to support development of a commercialization strategy for inclusion in a Phase II proposal.


After you complete the process, you will have the opportunity to leave feedback about your experience to help us improve this tool for future use.

1. Technology

The Technology component of the transition plan is focused on defining or identifying the key elements that influence or impact the technology issues associated with research and development, engineering and manufacturing development, software/systems development, and production and deployment activities that a company must address in order to mature and deploy technology in an operational environment.


To what extent have you defined what type of technology you are developing under your SBIR/STTR Project? Check one that applies:

To what extent have you defined the intellectual property and protection (patents, copyrights, trademarks) of the technology?


To what extent have you defined the end-to-end, high-level systems that will incorporate the technology?

To what extent have you defined the supply chain for the high-level, end-to-end systems including primes and other key suppliers?

To what extent have you defined the end users (programs, program managers)? Check at least one that applies:


To what extent have you defined the infrastructure required to field the end-to-end system?

To what extent have you defined the concept of operations for the end-to-end system to be fielded?


To what extent have you identified operational requirements?

To what extent have you identified TRL requirements?

To what extent have you identified MRL requirements?


To what extent have you identified standards (including interfaces)?

To what extent have you identified specifications (including those required for engineering and testing)?

To what extent have you identified both required and optional test experiment, evaluation, exercise, and demonstration opportunities?

To what extent have you identified certifications (such as DIACAP, or CMMI certifications)?


To what extent have you defined required manufacturing processes?

To what extent have you defined a proposed Phase III technology development plan (e.g. statement of work, schedule, budget, resources, team partners, TRL goals)?

To what extent have you defined risk areas and mitigation, including the following identified in the National Research Council's "SBIR and the Phase III Challenge of Commercialization: Report of a Symposium",
2007 (p. 15)?:

  • Ability to obtain funding to complete technology development
  • Robustness of technology for integration into a DoD system
  • Meeting DoD program schedule
  • Meeting testing and engineering specs
  • Ability to deliver on time and within budget
  • Ability to scale

2. Business

The Business Checklist will help you identify business elements that your company should review and should be done in parallel with the technology and market checklists.


To what extent have you defined the company's business model(s) that you plan to pursue for transitioning this technology? Check at least one that applies:

To what extent have you defined the proposed commercialization models and critical contract/deal terms for bringing the technology to market? Check at least one that applies:

To what extent have you defined the value proposition for your technology?

To what extent have you defined pricing models and price points?


To what extent have you identified and evaluated stakeholders and advocates?

To what extent have you identified and evaluated business partners (e.g., primes, distributors)?

To what extent have you identified and evaluated your company's transition project team (e.g., technology, business, marketing, finance domains)?


To what extent have you performed the financial analysis (profit and loss pro forma, cash flow, operating expenses, financing requirements)?

To what extent have you identified Phase III funding sources and all those that will have a role in making funding decisions? Check at least one that applies:
                   

3. Market

The Market Checklist will help you identify key market elements that your company should review and should ideally be done in parallel with the technology checklist.


To what extent have you defined policy, legislation and other new market drivers?


To what extent have you defined federal acquisition/procurement drivers? Check at least one that applies to your federal acquisition/procurement drivers:

To what extent have you defined commercial purchasing drivers? Check at least one that applies to your commercial purchasing drivers:

To what extent have you defined and evaluated targeted markets? Check at least one that applies:



To what extent have you defined and qualified targeted customers (agency, program, program manager) for the following phases?

Technology and Development Phase

Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase

Production and Development Phase

To what extent have you defined the current supplier position within targeted customer sets (existing or potentially new)?

To what extent have you defined your targeted federal acquisition and procurement models? Check at least one that applies:

To what extent have you defined the commercial sales model (direct sale, distributor)?

To what extent have you identified competitors?

To what extent have you assessed your relative position in the market?

To what extent have you performed self-analysis to understand strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (commonly referred to as a SWOT analysis)?

To what extent have you defined and implemented needed business development capabilities (proposal development, costing, contracting, marketing)?

To what extent have you identified thought leadership opportunities such as conferences or publication opportunities?

To what extent have you identified networking opportunities through SBIR, DoD resources, other federal agencies or trade organization meetings?

To what extent have you developed a Project Summary for distribution to potential advocates, partners, collaborators and stakeholders to communicate information about the technology being developed?

4. Report

warning message for no cookiesIt is recommended that you complete all questions before viewing the reports.




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