This document discusses project identification and selection, focusing on needs identification. It describes the project lifecycle stages of identifying needs, proposing solutions, performing projects, and terminating projects. The needs identification phase starts with recognizing a need and ends with issuing a request for proposal (RFP). Key steps in needs identification and project selection include clearly defining problems, determining budgets, selecting projects with the greatest benefits, developing evaluation criteria, and gathering data to evaluate opportunities. The document also outlines guidelines for preparing RFPs and soliciting proposals from contractors in response to identified needs.

1. Project Identification and Selection
Chapter 3

2. Learning Objectives
 Review the project life cycle
– Identifying needs
– Proposing a solution
– Performing the project
– Terminating the project
 Focus on needs identification
 Identify needs and select projects
 Develop RFPs
 The proposal solicitation process

3. Needs Identification
 It is the initial phase of the project lifecycle
– Starts with recognition of a need, problem, or opportunity
– Ends with the issuance of a request for proposal (RFP)
 Customer identifies a need, a problem, or an
opportunity for a better way of doing something
– Sees benefit in undertaking a project to result in
improvement

4. Needs Identification (Cont.)
 Prior to preparing an RFP:
– Recognize a need, problem, or opportunity
– Clearly define the problem or need
– Quantify the problem
– Determine the budget
– Select the project(s) with the greatest benefit for the cost
expended

5. Project Selection
 Involves evaluating various needs or opportunities,
and then deciding which of these should move
forward as a project to be implemented
 Steps in project selection:
– Develop a set of criteria against which each opportunity will be
evaluated
– List the assumptions
– Gather data and information for each opportunity
– Evaluate each opportunity against the criteria

6. Project Selection (Cont.)
 Group consensus lead to better quality decision and
higher acceptance of the decision
 Effective approach – selection committee to develop
a set of evaluation criteria
 In most cases selection based on a combination of
quantitative and qualitative evaluation

7. Preparing a Request for Proposal
 State, comprehensively and in detail, what is
required, from the customer’s point of view
 Enable contractors or a project team to understand
what the customer expects so that they can prepare
a thorough proposal
 The need may be communicated informally—and
sometimes only orally

8. Preparing a Request for Proposal (Cont.)
 Guidelines for drafting a formal RFP to external
contractors:
– Statement of work (SOW)
– Customer requirements
– Deliverables
– Customer-supplied items
– Approvals required by the customer
– Type of contract

9. Preparing a Request for Proposal (Cont.)
– The payment terms
– The required schedule for completion
– Instructions for the format and content of the contractor
proposals
– Due date for proposals
– Evaluation criteria
– Occasionally will indicate the funds the customer has
available

10. Soliciting Proposals
 Methods:
– Identify a selected group of contractors in advance and
send each an RFP
– Advertise in certain business newspapers
– Process considered a competitive situation

11. Soliciting Proposals (Cont.)
 Don’t provide information that is not provided to all
contractors
 May hold a bidders’ meeting to explain the RFP and
answer questions
 Not all use RFP