When defining requirements for the procurement of goods, the following are 20 questions to consider:
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- What do we need?
- Why?
- How many?
- When?
- What quality?
- For stock or immediate use?
- If for stock, do we have sufficient storage space?
- Where?
- Can we get the goods from another government entity?
- If not, can we make them?
- Who will make them?
- Do we buy them?
- Have we bought them before?
- Any known sources?
- What’s the cost?
- Are there funds available?
- Any funding constraints lien?
- Do we have the technical specifications?
- If not, who will prepare them?
- How long will it take to get the goods (procurement lead-time)?
4 thoughts on “20 Questions to Ask When Defining Requirements for Goods Procurement”
People at procurement should look at each Procurement Request (PR) from various perspectives, such as:
1. Individual end user and their department;
2. Finance department;
3. Store / Inventory;
4. Also from procurement department.
This holistic approach helps to derrive answers to the above questions
Certainly, procurement is a support activity that needs to take into consideration the needs of the end-user. To do so, it’s important to get multi-departmental input to ensure all options are taken into consideration. So an holistic approach is most definitely advantageous.
Also Market related factors like ease of availability, alternative solutions, distance, foreign/local source, tax implications etc., would add more value to the need / requirement analysis
Useful contribution Veda, thanks. The more questions we can ask when defining requirements, the better.