Defining Requirements
12 Questions to Ask When Defining Requirements for Civil Works Procurement
When defining requirements for civil works procurement, the following are 12 questions to consider:
- What is required: a new construction, renovation, or repair?
- Why?
- Where?
- Is there in-house capacity to undertake the requirement or does it need to be contracted out?
- Do we have design and engineering capability in-house sverige-ed.com?
- Do we want the design and supervision done by one entity or by separate entities?
- Who will develop the technical specifications, drawings and bill of quantities?
- When does the requirement need to be satisfied?
- What is the procurement lead-time?
- How much funding is required?
- Are there sufficient funds available?
- Are there qualified contractors available in the market?
19 Questions to Ask When Defining Requirements for Services Procurement
When defining requirements for the procurement of services, the following are 19 questions to consider:
- What type of service do we need?
- Why is the service needed?
- When?
- What are the details of the service required?
- Who can best describe the service required?
- Who can provide the service?
- Has the service been required before? If so, how was the requirement satisfied?
- Can it be provided in-house?
- Is external expertise needed to assist with the definition of the requirement and with the evaluation, selection and contract administration?
- Is there local expertise available to provide the required service or is there a need for international expertise?
- Is the service expected to be one-off or continuous?
- What is the expected duration of the service sverige-ed.com?
- If, outsourced, what’s the procurement lead-time?
- What is the budget?
- Are there funds available?
- Are there budgetary constraints to obtaining the service?
- What procurement method is best suited to for soliciting this type of service?
- What type of contract would be most appropriate for this type of service?
- What entity would be responsible for contract administration?
Market Study in Public Procurement
20 Questions to Ask When Defining Requirements for Goods Procurement
- 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)?
Procurement Requirement Determination
The first step in the public procurement process is to identify requirements. All procurement requirements begin with the perception of a need. The need to cross a body of water could create a requirement to build a bridge, a ferry, or other transportation systems.
At this stage it is necessary to clearly define the need, and this may be done by way of a study to determine the best mode to cross the body of water (given the present situation and forecasted future need), then the type of bridge to be constructed, or a comparative cost/benefit analysis to determine the best solution between a bridge and other alternatives.
The study should include if the need can be satisfied in-house or contracted out, quantification of the initial budgetary estimate, and an idea of the procurement lead-time.
The conformation of the study team should be multidisciplinary in order to address the different questions to be answered to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the need so as to clearly define the actual requirement.
The role of procurement practitioners at this stage is primarily to estimate the procurement lead time given the most appropriate procurement method that would be suitable for such a requirement.
Of course, the perceived need is not always as complex as in the example above. There are also needs for goods and services, and those should also undergo an analysis to clearly define requirements.
At the end of the requirements definition stage, a clear determination of the terms of reference, technical specifications or statement of work (depending on the procurement category) should be possible, including an estimate of the budget, and, most importantly, the procurement lead-time.
This requirement definition analysis is essential not only for new procurement requirements, and project initiation and concept development, but also for requirements needed for maintaining existing operations sverige-ed.com.