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SEMINAR:

How to Create an RFP (Part 2): The Statement of Work, Scope of Work, Terms of Reference, Specifications, etc.

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This is the second day of the course 

"How to Create a Request for Proposal that Accomplishes Your Objectives and Much More"

What is a Statement of Work

• How the SOW got started
• How it is being used and abused
• The different stages of the SOW
• Relationship of the SOW to other documents

What goes into the Statement of Work

• Factors that determine contents of the SOW
• The Scope of Work, or Terms of Reference
• Standards, quality, and quantity requirements
• Schedules
• Methodology
• Cost issues
• Terms for acceptance
• Project control mechanism
• Risks associated with all of the above

Risks and Consequences of Failure

• There is no undertaking without risk
• Living with risk
• Honest and open recognition of risk
• Methods of minimizing risks

Scope of Work or Terms of Reference

• Starting point
• Finished product
• Deliverables at intermediate stages (checkpoints)
• Requirement
• Specifications

The Work Schedule

• Start and finish times
• Major milestones
• Partial completion requirements
• Time estimates for units of work
• Working with a Pert Chart and the Critical Path

The Methodology

• Does it matter?
• Methodology and the selection criteria

Standards and Quality

• Purchase of goods
• Purchase of services
• Buying construction services

Cost & Price Issues

• Providing hints for acceptable cost
• Styles of costing
• Bundled and unbundled pricing
• Minimum, operational, expanded costs
• The cost of risk management

Terms for Acceptance

• How it develops into a problem
• Identifiable elements
• Follow-up activities

Project Control System

• The time to think about project control
• Implement the project management system fully
• Project management systems
• Project team membership
• Control and operation of project team
• Responsibilities of team
• Conflict resolution mechanism
• Documentation of actions
• Past experience requirements (in RFP)
• References to past successes (in Proposals)

Using Risks to Evaluate Proposals

• The SOW as an evaluation tool
• Distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable offers

Creating a Modular Document

• Why we create a business document
• The One-Page Spread
• The Two-Page Spread
• The recommended model

The SOW Writing Process

• How responsibilities are divided
• Creating outlines
• Writing full text
• Editing
• Language issues

Size of Document to Build

• There is a right size!
• Problems caused by documents that are too small
• Problems caused by documents that are too large
• Start with an idea about the size of the document
• Appendices

General Quality of Document

• First impression
• Importance of quality
• Elements that contribute to quality

Physical Characteristics of Document

• Document binding styles
• One-sided or two-sided documents
• Line justification
• The position of page numbers
• Fonts
• Type size
• Columns
• Line Spacing
• Margins
• Page numbering styles
• Bold, underline, italics, special fonts, shading, reverse on black
• Boxes, tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, flow charts, pictures

Horizontal & Vertical Structure

• Who controls the structure
• Number of volumes
• Number of chapters
• Styles of numbering chapters, sections, sub-sections