The first 30 days as your sub
A concrete onboarding script your PM can forward to their team the day your task order is awarded. What kickoff looks like, what we need from you, what you can expect from us. Civilian, unclassified, fixed-scope.
What we need from your PM in the first 24 hours
Four artifacts on day zero. With these in hand, kickoff happens on day 1. Without them, kickoff slips and everyone notices.
- Executed sub-PO + flow-down clauses — the legal anchor for everything that follows
- Vehicle & line-item assignment — which vehicle, which CLIN, what billing code
- Named TPM contact + escalation path — one technical PM, one escalation lead, both with email + phone
- Preferred status-reporting cadence — weekly written? bi-weekly demo? agency-facing summary template?
The 30-day timeline at a glance
Six phases. Each phase has a deliverable your PM can attach to a status report.
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Days 1–3 · Kickoff
Joint kickoff call (60 min): SOW walk-through, scope confirmation, technical stack alignment, agency-specific compliance requirements, definition-of-done.
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Days 4–7 · Compliance setup
NDA execution if not already in place, NIST 800-171 control mapping pulled and shared, personnel staffing confirmed (Public Trust eligibility where applicable), data-handling plan filed, repository / cloud-account access established in the prime’s stack.
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Days 8–14 · Discovery sprint
Stakeholder discovery and first wireframe / API contract / data-model draft. Lightweight; designed to fit between status reports, not replace them.
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Days 15–21 · Alpha build
Vertical-slice build of the primary user path. First demo to prime PM and (optionally) agency stakeholder. Weekly written status report begins.
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Days 22–30 · Iterate & plan remainder
Iterate on alpha feedback, lock the remaining-sprint scope, share burn-down and remaining-risk register with the prime PM. Decision point on retainer / sustain phase.
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Recurring cadence (after Day 30)
Weekly written status (delivered to prime PM, copyable to agency), bi-weekly demo, monthly invoice aligned to prime’s payment terms.
Sample artifacts you can review before signing
A working preview of what your PM will receive from us during the engagement. Sanitized, drawn from real engagement formats.
1 · Sprint plan — one-page fixed-scope sprint outline
Format. One page. Sections: scope summary · user stories or work items · sprint goal · demoable deliverable at end-of-sprint · risks and open questions · named PM, named OlenArc delivery lead.
Example structure for a 2-week sprint inside a 6-week module engagement:
- Sprint goal: “Working applicant portal authentication flow demoable to Prime PM and program staff.”
- In scope: SSO integration spec, login UX, role bootstrap, audit log baseline.
- Out of scope (next sprint): Multi-tenancy admin, password-recovery UX, role-revocation UI.
- Demoable deliverable: Live login flow, 3 test users across 3 roles, screen-recording fallback if Prime cannot join the demo.
- Acceptance: Prime PM sign-off via email or status-call recording.
2 · Weekly status report — 200-word email + burn-down
Format. One short email, ~200 words, sent every Friday to the named Prime PM with one inline burn-down image. Designed so the Prime PM can forward verbatim into the agency status report without rewriting.
Sections (each 1–2 sentences):
- Shipped this week. What landed in production or staging.
- In flight. What is being worked on right now and the expected demo date.
- Blockers. Anything waiting on Prime PM, agency input, or upstream system access — named with the gate keeper.
- Risks & mitigation. Anything that could slip the sprint goal and what we’re doing about it.
- Burn-down. Story-points or work-items completed vs remaining, against sprint target.
Frequency: weekly. Length: < 300 words. Action expected from Prime PM: none unless a blocker is named.
3 · First-demo agenda + acceptance criteria
Format. One page, sent to Prime PM 48 hours before the first end-of-sprint demo. Sections: agenda · demoable deliverable · acceptance criteria · deferred-decisions list.
Standard 30-minute agenda:
- 0:00–0:05. Sprint goal recap, scope confirmation.
- 0:05–0:20. Live demo of the deliverable, with named user-paths walked end-to-end.
- 0:20–0:27. Acceptance walkthrough — each criterion confirmed yes / no / partial.
- 0:27–0:30. Open questions, next-sprint scope, demo-recording sent within 24 hours.
Acceptance template: “Criterion N: <observable behavior> — Pass / Partial / Defer with named owner and target date.” Each criterion is a yes/no statement, not a subjective quality judgment.
4 · CUI-handling plan — one-page operational guide
Format. One page filed at engagement kickoff, attached to the kickoff memo. Confirms how OlenArc will handle Controlled Unclassified Information inside the Prime’s compliance posture.
Standard sections:
- CUI categories in scope. What types of CUI the engagement will touch (e.g., grant-applicant PII, agency-sourced program data).
- Encryption posture. At-rest and in-transit; cloud-inherited (AWS GovCloud / Azure Government) or application-layer where required.
- Access control. Named personnel with access, role definitions, MFA enforcement, revocation SLA.
- Marking & handling. How CUI is marked in documents, screen views, exports, logs.
- Incident notification. 4-hour SLA from confirmed incident to Prime PM and Prime security contact.
- End-of-engagement disposition. Return / destroy procedure with written certification.
- NIST SP 800-171 mapping. Cross-reference to the relevant family table on Certifications.
5 · Invoice format — aligned to typical prime payment terms
Format. One-page PDF, generated monthly, designed to be Prime-AP-ready: machine-readable line items, sub-PO reference, billing-period dates, payment-terms-aware due date.
Standard fields:
- Header: OlenArc legal name, UEI / CAGE (once active), remit-to bank info, Prime’s sub-PO number, agency / task-order reference.
- Billing period: First and last day of the period; status-report attachments by reference.
- Line items: Fixed-price milestones with status (delivered / in flight) or T&M hours by named resource and rate, aggregated by CLIN.
- Subtotal, tax (if applicable), total due.
- Payment terms: Net 30 / 45 / 60 per the sub-PO, due date computed.
- Notes: Status-report reference, demo-recording link if the sprint closed in the period.
Frequency: monthly. Submission: Prime AP email or Prime portal per sub-PO. Expected processing window: per the Prime’s net-terms clause — status checks at +14 / +28 / +45 days if unconfirmed.
Want any of these in your prime’s format before kickoff? Email Team@OlenArc.com — we return tailored samples within 2 business days under a mutual NDA.
Want to walk a live kickoff together?
If you’re evaluating OlenArc for a near-term task order and want to dry-run the first 30 days against your specific vehicle, book a 25-minute partner call.