12.2.1 Inputs to Solicitation Planning

.1 Procurement management plan. The procurement management plan is described in Section 12.1.3.1.

.2 Statement(s) of work. The statement of work is described in Section 12.1.3.2.

.3 Other planning outputs. Other planning outputs (see Section 12.1.1.5), which may have been modified from when they were considered as part of procurement planning, should be reviewed again as part of solicitation. In particular, solicitation planning should be closely aligned with the project schedule.

12.2.2 Tools and Techniques for Solicitation Planning

.1 Standard forms. Standard forms may include standard contracts, standard descriptions of procurement items, or standardized versions of all or part of the needed bid documents (see Section 12.2.3.1). Organizations that do substantial amounts of procurement should have many of these documents standardized.

.2 Expert judgment. Expert judgment is described in Section 12.1.2.2.

12.2.3 Outputs from Solicitation Planning

.1 Procurement documents. Procurement documents are used to solicit proposals from prospective sellers. The terms bid and quotation are generally used when the source selection decision will be based on price (as when buying commercial or standard items), while the term proposal is generally used when considerations, such as technical skills or technical approach, are paramount (as when buying professional services). However, the terms are often used interchangeably and care should be taken not to make unwarranted assumptions about the implications of the term used. Common names for different types of procurement documents include: Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), Invitation for Negotiation, and Contractor Initial Response.
  Procurement documents should be structured to facilitate accurate and complete responses from prospective sellers. They should always include the relevant SOW, a description of the desired form of the response, and any required contractual provisions (e.g., a copy of a model contract, nondisclosure provisions). With government contracting some or all of the content and structure of procurement documents may be defined by regulation.
  Procurement documents should be rigorous enough to ensure consistent, comparable responses, but flexible enough to allow consideration of seller suggestions for better ways to satisfy the requirements.

.2 Evaluation criteria. Evaluation criteria are used to rate or score proposals. They may be objective (e.g., “The proposed project manager must be a certified Project Management Professional,PMP®.”) or subjective (e.g., “The proposed project manager must have documented, previous experience with similar projects”). Evaluation criteria are often included as part of the procurement documents.
  Evaluation criteria may be limited to purchase price if the procurement item is readily available from a number of acceptable sources (purchase price in this context includes both the cost of the item and ancillary expenses such as delivery). When this is not the case, other selection criteria must be identified and documented to support an assessment. For example:

   Understanding of need—as demonstrated by the seller’s proposal.

   Overall or life-cycle cost—will the selected seller produce the lowest total cost (purchase cost plus operating cost)?

   Technical capability—does the seller have, or can the seller be reasonably expected to acquire, the technical skills and knowledge needed?

   Management approach—does the seller have, or can the seller be reasonably expected to develop, management processes and procedures to ensure a successful project?

   Financial capacity—does the seller have, or can the seller reasonably be expected to obtain, the necessary financial resources?

.3 Statement of work updates. The statement of work is described in Section 12.1.3.2 Modifications to one or more statements of work may be identified during solicitation planning.