Using a Bid Development Worksheet

Structuring and developing the bid are discussed in Chapter 12. A bid development worksheet on the lines of Figure 8.2 offers a useful means of staying in control of these activities, organizing and coordinating your response to the client's specification and building up ideas for the content of the bid. It enables you to map out every part of the response and serves as a framework to help follow through points set out in the specification and identified from your background research.

Points from bid specification	Place in bid	Points and ideas for bid document	Internal input/comments from	External input/comments from	Tables and figures?	Schedule
Requirement to provide Management Summary, to include:	Section 2		PWE and JS
summary of overall approach to the scheme	2(a)	key priorities: making sure scheme goes live successfully on time; transparency of operation; securing public support; ensuring minimum risk to the Authority	Input from TS office? Ask them to look at draft			Need basic drafts by 20/04: comments by 25/04: editing to be completed by 28/04
demonstration of level of commitment to the scheme	2(b)	describe pilot technology projects funded by the group; investment in practical and innovative applications		ETE on test project results	Photos from pilot project locations	Speak to ETE 18/04 (PWE)
demonstration of understanding of the Guiding Principles set out in Part A of the bid specification	2(c)	short paragraph on each of the principles	LE to comment
details of recent contracts, contracts in progress and statement on current and future work commitments	2(d)	tabulate contracts by date and in key categories of experience		Get contract records from ABA	Tables of contract experience: PWE to advise on categories and contract selection	Need by 19/04 (JS)
		Cut-off point?
		Annotate with best practice evidence	PWE
		Focus on inner-city projects	SRB bid	Liverpool?
		Contact details for client references	JS has up to date lists

Figure 8.2: Detail of a Bid Development Worksheet

The example in Figure 8.2 is taken from a recent procurement and relates to one of the requirements in the bid specification, the inclusion of a management summary. The worksheet indicates who is to be responsible for producing this information and where it might feature in the bid; it provides space to record ideas about how this material might be treated and points that need to be emphasized; it identifies sources of information and comment, flags up requirements for tables, graphics and appendices and shows the target dates when material has to be ready.

Using a worksheet like this means that everyone who has a part to play in developing the bid knows what is expected of them, whom they should talk to and when they have to deliver. Progress can be checked off and items that demand particular attention can be highlighted. As its name implies, it is intended as a working document that is adaptable to revision as ideas about the bid take shape.