Requests for Proposals (RFPs)

An RFP is issued by the customer. The customer announces that they have written an RFP because they need a new system of some type. For example, one of the states in the United States will announce that they need a new system for issuing driver’s licenses. Included in the announcement will be instructions about how to get a copy of the detailed RFP.

Once that announcement has been made, any vendors potentially interested in responding to the RFP can request a copy.

The RFP is a very detailed description of what the custom solution that the customer wants should include. I have personally read RFPs that run to more than 400 pages. Vendors are allowed to ask questions in writing about the contents of the RFP, which will be answered as long as the administrative rules for submitting questions specified in the RFP are met. Most often the questions asked by one vendor and answered by the customer will be shared with the other vendors. Fundamentally the RFP is intended to be the technical specification for the new solution and generally serves that purpose well.

It should be pointed out that the proposal submitted in response to the RFP must include costs as well as a description of the solution that the customer is to provide.

In most RFPs, much of the text is non-technical. For example, some of it will be a description of the process that vendors are to use when responding to the RFP with a quotation.

The point of this section is to say that if you are responding to an RFP, what follows in the rest of this discussion on defining requirements is really irrelevant. The RFP defines the requirements without the other steps mentioned on this blog.

Having said that, I will mention that if your proposal is accepted, some customers are open to having discussions on modifications to the proposal on the condition that you can show a cost savings or you can propose an addition to the requirements that you can demonstrate will pay for itself in a relatively short period of time. If the customer is open to such a discussion then much of the advice about the definition of requirements becomes relevant again.