Past performance is used to show that you have relevant experience performing similar work. If your business does not have formal company past performance yet, you may still be able to present relevant personal, professional, subcontractor, employee, project team, or prior work experience.
The goal is to be honest, clear, and specific about what experience belongs to the business and what experience belongs to the owner, key personnel, or project team.
Use this guide to organize relevant project experience in a way that supports your proposal, capability statement, or contractor profile.
Use these steps to identify, organize, and present relevant experience in a credible way.
Start by reading the solicitation, scope of work, qualifications, evaluation criteria, and past performance instructions. Identify what kind of experience the agency is asking for, such as similar size, scope, complexity, industry, location, schedule, or customer type.
List projects that are similar to the work being requested. These may include projects performed by the business, the owner, key employees, subcontractors, or team members, as long as the proposal clearly explains who performed the work and how the experience is relevant.
For each project, describe what you personally performed or managed. Do not just list the project name. Explain your duties, decision-making role, technical work, management responsibilities, customer interaction, quality control, scheduling, staffing, or delivery responsibilities.
Provide at least three examples from the last three to five years when possible. Include details such as timeline, budget, deliverables, quality standards, customer requirements, problems solved, or measurable outcomes.
When possible, use numbers to explain the results. Examples include project dollar value, number of locations served, number of staff managed, delivery time, cost savings, production volume, contract period, customer satisfaction, or schedule completion.
Ask former supervisors, customers, project managers, colleagues, prime contractors, or client representatives if they are willing to serve as references. References help validate your role, responsibilities, reliability, and quality of work.
A strong past performance entry should help the evaluator understand what work was performed, who performed it, why it is relevant, and whether the experience can be verified.
Use this format to organize personal, owner, employee, subcontractor, or related project experience when the business does not yet have formal company past performance.
| Agency / Client Name | [Name of agency, company, organization, client, prime contractor, employer, or project owner] |
|---|---|
| Project Description | [Briefly describe the project, scope, customer need, industry, and why it is relevant to the current opportunity] |
| Duties Performed | [Describe your role, responsibilities, tasks performed, management duties, technical work, deliverables, and results] |
| Start Date – End Date | [Month/Year – Month/Year] |
| Project Value / Size | [Dollar value, estimated budget, number of units, project size, number of staff, or other measurable scale] |
| Results / Metrics | [Describe schedule performance, cost savings, quality results, customer satisfaction, efficiency improvements, or other measurable results] |
| Reference | [Reference name, title, organization, phone, and email, if available and permitted] |
Do not claim personal experience as business entity past performance if the business did not perform the work. Instead, clearly explain the relationship between the experience and the company’s ability to perform the contract.
