Tender: from bureaucracy to action

Recently in the podcast WebProfessionals.ru I shared my experience in selecting contractors and working effectively with them on mobile software and website development projects. In this post we have formulated several theses on how to turn the usual procedure of corporate tender of a large company into an effective - for both parties - process.

1. Formulate a task . And both a business component, and grocery. You must clearly understand the expected ROI and measurable KPI. During the tender, the task will be clarified. Allocate time to work on specifying tasks in the process.
2. Mark the requirements for the timing, resources and quality level of the project. Decide on the additional parameters that are important to you. What criteria are most important in making a decision.
3. Assign PM'a - one (!) Responsible for the implementation of a specific employee. Decision making is the prerogative of the person responsible for the project as a whole. Partner success means PM's personal success, partner's failure is PM's personal failure.
4. Create a list of bidders (no more than 10). Pre-selection can be done using public information and formal features (portfolio, recommendations of real clients, experience of the company and people working in the company ...).
5. Submit the task to the tenderers and set a timeline for the consultation , proposal wording, and decision date .
6. Be sure to communicate (and ideally meet) with the bidders. Make sure that the bidders are fully (!) Understood , and they have asked all the questions that arise.
7. Estimate the depth of decomposition of the problem . This will show how much time and cost you can trust.
8. Assess how well the bidders understand the business problem (if you intend to voice it in the context of the tender).
9. Assess how the bidders are experts in implementation tools, whether they have proposed various solutions .
10. Be sure to appreciate how the company worked in the tender. Is there much water in the documents , are you ready to take responsibility?
11. Rate what kind of SLA the company is ready to take on. Responsibility should be clearly measurable and spelled out in the contract .
12. Assess the understanding of the tenderers of the risks and what criteria they affect. Understand for yourself how the timing, amount, quality will change. If the risks are not specified , it does not mean that they are not.
13. If you feel that your own competence to assess is not enough, contact the experts .
14. Rate how comfortable it is for people to work on the project.
15. Record meeting summary , conditions and criteria. For clarity, summarize the data in a single document. Analyze, think, and as soon as all data is received, immediately make a decision.

Konstantin Polunin aka @kopo_ru
Project manager
SUP Fabrik