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Perry_Moore -at- themoneystore -dot- com wants to know about RFPs
I did an RFP for the consulting company I work for last year. I spent 4 days
at the client site, interviewing principals, looking at code and existing
documentation, finding out what the client needed/wanted. I then went off and
broke the job into tasks, very specific tasks, related to their programs. I
calculated time for research of each program, writing the documentation,
review time for the client, editing etc. This took a couple of days. In the
end, the RFP was about 10 pages long, most of it detailed tables for task
completion. My director added the money part and we presented it to the
client.
RFPs can be as detailed as you think the client needs them to be, or as
general as you think is waranted. It, like all tech writing, depends on your
audience. But in general, the better the RFP, the more likely you are to get
the job.
Format varies from company to company. I'd have to assume that the people
you're talking with already have a format for RFPs. They might not be happy
with what they have, but they still probably have one.
As I already stated, I've only done one RFP. But we did get the contract.
