Writing a request for a proposal often means guaranteeing an excellent and accurate offer from developers and a well-done project in the end. It will be on time, within budget, and of high quality. So, let’s consider some recommendations on how to prepare RFP so that both client and the developing team stay on the same page.
What is RFP?
RFP or request for proposal is an initial problem, a document intended to be sent to the developers with the statement of all requirements on tech stack, tools, and other resources that need to be provided to accomplish the client’s project.
It reflects the client’s goals to achieve KPIs, criteria for tender if any, and other vital indicators.
What should be in an RFP?
Where to begin and what to include in this document format? There are a couple of details to explain both for the client to the development agency and vice versa.
1. Background and introduction
Describe everything necessary in two or three paragraphs. From goals, objectives, requirements, restrictions in general. You will return to this block more than once during the document’s writing to correct it, but it is essential to start with it. And try to make it as compact and informative as possible.
2. Project goals and scope of services
The brand should define the main marketing objectives and the business goals that they want to achieve.
Business goals are what’s needed for effective project management. There are two things to keep in mind when writing goals:
- The purpose of any activity lies outside the scope of this activity. That is, the goal of developing a website is not to sell a product but to increase the service quality for customers by providing another communication channel.
- Developing a B2B system is not to create software for interacting with the customers through the network. It’s rather to reduce costs and increase turnover through automation, etc.
3. Anticipated time
The goal should also be measurable and limited in time. For example, to finish digital business transformation till 2022, etc. Think of a schedule or a time frame for your project to launch, dwell on and finish.
The agency here may be engaged in creating presentations and focus on how to best show the product. The brand may set the dates and select the finalists who prepare the best presentations.
4. Budget
The company should set the budget to estimate its internal and external resources, how the project will be managed, and what metrics will be required to determine its effectiveness. The agency that takes an order should formulate many questions for the brand: the needs of the business and users, resources, content format, and the presence of stakeholders, etc.
5. Communication
The brand talks about its marketing goals and figures out the most priority ones in the set budget. It introduces the agency to its structure and discusses the best form of relationship and cooperation. The agency gets an idea of the company’s organization, signs the necessary reporting documents, and develops a work plan and communication strategy. Both stay on the same page.
The Process of the Writing a Request for Proposal
Like any other official document RFP, the type of procurement document is used to request proposals for products or services from prospective sellers. In some areas of industry, this term may have a narrower or special meaning and should be accomplished accordingly. Nevertheless, here’s what the development RFP process may include.
1. Gathering RFP requirements
While gartering requirements, goals, and objectives, describe them so that the potential contractor understands whether current clients are achieving similar success. Note here the criteria for the success of the project. Also, it is important to set the target metrics.
2. Crafting your RFP
Business requirements and scenarios are ways of achieving your goals and objectives. It is essential to describe this point while crafting your RFP in detail. Functionality does not mean full compliance with the process.
Functional requirements mean a particular set of features that the system must have. The business/systems analyst describes this part.
Also, there are Non-functional requirements to include. Here are the examples of non-functional requirements you might have on your list, but this list is not final.
- Availability of a public roadmap for the development.
- UI and UX requirements.
- Other.
Besides, you may craft what’s included in an MVP? Agile or waterfall preferred? By priorities, the list of scenarios and requirements that must be implemented first, etc.
Choose Agile if:
- you personally and several of your colleagues are ready to give 80% -100% of your time to a fully immersive project.
- you have sufficient competence and you are ready to dive into development together with the devs,
- you are ready to share the risks for missed deadlines or for the low quality of the contractor’s work,
- both you and the contractor understand that at the moment it is not normal to collect the requirements, because they have not yet been invented to the end, but you need to start working, because of the market, business or any other needs.
It’s a big mistake to write an RFP that each developer will understand differently. Then offers from different developers, in the end, cannot be compared.
Choose Waterfall if:
- you go to a relatively standard project that you have already done before,
- you understand quite well what you want, right here, right now,
- you are not ready to devote a significant part of your time to control and take communication with devs,
- it is important for you to know how much the development will cost right now, and it is important that this be a contractor’s headache, how to bring quality into a limited budget,
- it is important for you to know when the development will be completed,
- and it is important that the contractor is financially responsible for meeting deadlines.
3. Creating and completing the contract
After you have prepared a text RFP, the next step is to compare all the participants somehow after receiving commercial proposals. You assess all the participants. You create and sign your contract based on the response. Besides, you get back to it when something goes astray or goes wrong during the development process. That’s why writing a response is so crucial for the customer company.
3 Tips on How to Make an RFP Document
To make things right with your document, not to miss a detail, you may use the basic RFP tips you find below.
1. Build a library of standard questions, sections, and templates
When you’re through with the requirements and so on, come up with a selection of FAQs and other popular requests that may save time and effort while getting to business. If you have no idea how to do that, use RFP writing tips.
2. Be as transparent as possible
While describing any part of the document, it’s better to be clear and transparent in your goals, needs, resources, and so on. The more precise the document is, the better the work is done in the end. Use guidelines to clarify how to write RFP.
3. Customize and optimize your template
Don’t get too comfortable with your standard RFP template. Some respondents may often add additional questions each time you have a new client. So, introduce your organization’s history, what it does, and what you do. Create a section that covers your company’s standard terms and conditions to use in any RFP template, etc. In a nutshell, work it out every time.
Conclusion
How to write a request for a proposal is something both the clients and the developers should know to build an effective process. Of course, it’s tough to mark all the details within a generic description. Nevertheless, it is better to understand that each of the steps on how to create an RFP is painstaking work.
After you have prepared a text RFP, the next step is to compare all the participants somehow after receiving commercial proposals if we talk about making the best choice among the developers.
Feel free to find out more on how to create a request for a proposal with Fireart by pressing contact us.
