Writing About Methodology


This information tells clients whether you have thought sufficiently about:

  • the most direct, practical and cost-effective route to meeting their requirements;

  • whether your plan of work or service delivery is consistent with their deadlines and robust in terms of timescale and cost;

  • the professional effort that you need to put into the assignment.

You have to ensure that:

  • the methodology is technically sound and realistic in terms of inputs of time and other resources;

  • the work plan includes all the tasks needed to achieve the intended results;

  • it is structured into clearly defined and manageable components;

  • the completion of each part of the work is marked by specified outputs and deliverables;

  • the sequence of tasks is logical and consistent;

  • the level and intensity of your inputs match the expectations of the client as well as the technical demands of the contract.

The level of professional effort you put into a contract has to be sufficient to get the work done properly in the available time, but it must also allow you to keep your price for the work competitive and within the limits of the client's budget. In some instances the bid specification may declare the funds available for the work and the client may ask bidders to show what they can provide for that amount. In most cases this information will not be explicit: one of the key tasks of client research will then be to try to identify the budget and develop a work programme that is achievable within its constraints.

In evaluating your bid, the client is looking for a realistic plan of work, not one that is overambitious. You certainly do not want to promise either a schedule of professional inputs you cannot deliver or a timetable of outputs you cannot sustain. Many of the key factors in a contract become much clearer once the work has started: at the bid stage it simply is not possible to foresee all the relationships between activities or the extent to which additional work may be necessary. So while it is right to avoid being imprecise, it is important not to over-specify the work programme or to imply that the bar chart is definitive.

The bid specification may outline the methods and procedures that successful tenderers will be expected to apply. Generally, these will be indicated only in broad terms, not so much to point contractors in the right direction as to give them a measure of the inputs required. Unless you have a good and convincing reason for proposing an alternative form of procedure, the methodology outlined in the specification should be adhered to.

Describing the work plan

The first points to be explained are the structure of the plan, the main steps in the methodology and the objectives and outputs of each step. Start with the broad picture, the work plan at the macro level, before writing about activities in detail (Figure 13.3).

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Figure 13.3: Principle of a Work Plan Analysis

Structure denotes organization. All technical procedures have a structure even if it consists simply of a beginning, a middle and an end. The work with which the contract starts might at the simplest level of analysis be termed Stage 1, the activities that follow on from that Stage 2 and the work that concludes the contract Stage 3. These stages might themselves be organizations of smaller components - Stage 1A, Stage 1B and so forth - formed in turn by aggregates of tasks or activities, each with its own resource needs. The view of the project resulting from this analysis is called in project management terminology a work breakdown structure. The more complex the assignment, the more important it is to convey the underlying structural logic governing the way your work plan is organized.

The division into stages, related to key outputs, may be suggested in the bid specification; it may be related to 'yes/no' decision milestones for the client or to targets and breakpoints in the work; it may be derived from your past experience of similar jobs, or just from common sense; or it may require an iterative process of analysis to decide the best form of structuring the work.

Plan this part of your response by sketching out the components of the job in a flow diagram, starting with the activities that get the work moving and showing how they lead on to other activities in a sequence directed toward the final deliverable. If there is any degree of complexity about the contract, the diagram will need to show dependencies or links between tasks, and relationships between sets of parallel or converging activities or between clusters of tasks. The sketch will then be described more accurately as a logic network or PERT (project evaluation and review technique) chart, giving an overview of the challenges of the contract, illustrating the connections between tasks and showing how they affect the critical path through the contract.

You do not have to get the sequence or the relationships right immediately. The process will often require a series of drafts, each of which is improved and fine-tuned to get closer to the desired result. The initial flow diagram is very much a working draft to help you sort out the logic of your method and to decide:

  • the identity and interlinking of component activities and the order in which they need to be undertaken;

  • the most sensible division of the job into its main structural blocks - in relation to the client's decision points, your ability to manage the flow of work and the results each stage or block of work will produce;

  • the level of detail to which the work plan needs to be analysed in the bid.

Including a final version of the diagram in the bid will help the client understand the route you propose to take in your methodology, as well as providing a reference map for your detailed analyses of individual tasks. A thumbnail sketch in the page margin, on the lines of Figure 19.1, can be a useful means of reminding the client where they are in the process.

If the technical method is particularly intricate - for example, in bids for contracts where work in several fields of expertise is taken forward in parallel through successive stages of design and implementation - you will need to produce a separate flow diagram for each stage or component, or even for each professional resource that you propose to use in the contract.

One point that generally will not be defined is the time within which client managers can be expected to review the drafts of reports and other deliverables and return their comments to you. The scheduling of activities in the work plan will need to include an allowance for review periods, particularly at key milestones. Make clear your assumptions on this point and the degree of flexibility built into the work plan. You do not want to find yourself in a situation where time constraints require you to start work on a new stage of the contract before you know the client's response to the previous stage.

Itemizing activities

After explaining the broad structure of the work plan, the text can move on to an itemized and sequential account of its component tasks and activities. Clients may sometimes indicate that tasks do not have to be set out in detail, but they will always need sufficient information to allow them to assess the technical content of the bid against the evaluation criteria.

Tasks and activities should be discussed in order of their proposed start dates, either as a single list or by stream of activity. Give each activity a reference number related to the structural division of the work (eg Activity la or Task 1A.3) and a title (eg Task 1A: Economic evaluation).

For each activity the points to communicate include:

  • the objectives of the task, expressed in terms of its contribution to the outputs of the contract;

  • its technical content, identifying components or sub-tasks, outlining the proposed procedure and indicating any methodological options to be considered;

  • data requirements;

  • issues to be taken into account, items to be analysed, trends and relationships to be examined, criteria to be applied and so forth;

  • estimated start and completion dates - which must be consistent with the timings indicated on charts and diagrams;

  • resource commitment, indicating the personnel who would undertake the activity and the time they would spend in terms of staff-months, days or hours, together with other inputs;

  • consultation and liaison with the client and other bodies;

  • inputs from other activities that are part of the contract;

  • outputs of the activity and deliverables (Chapter 15).

While recognizing that the descriptions can only be indicative at this stage, take care not to portray activities in vague or generalized terms. Explain how you propose to go about the activity, what procedures you intend to follow, what form the analysis will take. Be as specific as is practicable; but don't fall into the trap of appearing to start work on the contract or use the bid to put forward solutions based on premature assumptions about the information to hand or the conditions in which the work will have to be done.

Remember that the bid may have to be read not just by managers familiar with its technical background. Your account of the methodology needs to have substance, but it should not be impenetrable to non-experts. In some instances there may be a case for including a simplified pr cis.

If there are alternative ways of going about the work, say what they are, outline the factors influencing your choice of option and justify your decision. There may be advantages in spelling out the implications of each option in terms of resources and outcomes, since this shows you have thought through the practical details of the work. If you are reluctant to commit yourself at the bid stage, explain the reason why. Remember that an inception report provides the opportunity to define tasks and activities in more confident detail (Chapter 15).

The itemized account of activities should be accompanied by an indicative bar chart setting out a time analysis of the work plan, showing the estimated start and completion dates of activities and their correlation with project milestones and decision points, including the schedule of deliverables.

'What if' questions

Project management software will allow you to test the outcome of changes in schedules, adjustments in sequences and the addition and subtraction of resources, as well as providing information on resource loading and enabling you to maintain resources in consistent use throughout the work programme. The software will also generate a variety of reports and charts that can be used as graphic material in this part of the bid.

Scheduling time inputs

The section should include also a Gantt chart of staff inputs, indicating:

  • the time scheduled to be spent on each activity by each individual or team;

  • the total amount of time proposed for each individual or team in terms of staff-months, days or hours, depending on the length of the assignment;

  • the sum total of the time chargeable to the assignment.

This information will be used to develop cost figures for the price information in the bid. Most project management applications will produce input data graphically as a matter of routine. Complex assignments may require separate bar charts for particular groups of staff or for individuals. As noted above, you need to allow sufficient time for the client's review and approval of deliverables and for consultation at decisive points in the work programme.

If the proposed staff have not been introduced earlier in the bid - for example, in the introductory section - the time input bar chart should be accompanied by 1) a statement of the basis on which the team has been structured; 2) an outline of their roles in the contract (Figure 13.4); and 3) r sum s for key personnel, with a forward reference to the full CVs. If the client has defined a starting date or mobilization date when team members are required to be ready for work, confirm that each individual or team will be available to provide the inputs marked on the bar chart and will not be committed to other work, assuming that the date indicated by the client holds good.

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Public Utilities Engineer: Norman Johnson

The Public Utilities Engineer will have the following responsibilities:

  • advising on the relationship of the proposed development to the existing utility networks and the means of achieving the most cost-effective integration of systems and services;

  • assisting in evaluating strategic options for the development from the standpoint of infrastructure provision and utilities supply;

  • estimating the total demand for public utilities (water supply; sewerage; sewage treatment; surface water drainage; waste collection and disposal; materials recycling and recovery; power; telecommunications; fire protection and other emergency services);

  • preparing demand and capacity calculations as input to the phasing of the development programme;

  • indicating techniques and engineering services needed to meet community requirements while safeguarding environmental quality;

  • developing provisional cost estimates for utility networks and programmes, including support and maintenance needs.

Norman Johnson's qualifications for this role include 10 years' senior experience (1992–2002) as the firm's Senior Utilities Design Engineer, engaged on urban and industrial development contracts for the Department and on projects in comparable design environments within the region. In 2001 he was made an Honorary Member of the National Institute of Public Utility Engineers and Scientists. His fields of specialization are the cost-effective design of water supply, storage and irrigation systems and the application of computer techniques in demand/supply modelling. CV no. 8 (Annex A) sets out his professional experience in detail.

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Figure 13.4: Team Member—Example of Outline of Technical Responsibilities and Resume

Aside from people and their time, the inputs you can bring to the contract may include items that have a high value for the client in terms of their contribution to performance and delivery, such as information systems, databases and database management systems, software, project management tools, quality auditing procedures and so forth. Don't just mention these inputs in passing or leave it to the client to deduce their significance: explain the benefits they offer and include material that illustrates how they have been used in comparable work and how they can be applied to secure the success of this contract.

Advice on content and presentation

  • Try to make the activity descriptions interesting to read. Communicate a sense of alertness and vitality in writing about your proposed methodology. Show that it offers innovative thinking while founded on dependable techniques.

  • Give each activity a strong practical slant, proving that you have thought the work programme through as a sequence of action.

  • Check that your treatment of the work programme is balanced. Does each activity and field of expertise have the emphasis it deserves?

  • Don't leave it to the client to piece together the logic of the work plan. Presenting this clearly can help you win the job. Clients will not feel happy with a bid if you make it hard for them to understand what methods you propose to use and why they offer the best approach.

  • If you intend to entrust parts of the work programme to associates or subcontractors, make sure that the role you are expecting them to fulfil and the time inputs you are allocating to them match their resources and capabilities.




Bids, Tenders and Proposals. Winning Business Through Best Practice
Bids, Tenders and Proposals: Winning Business through Best Practice (Bids, Tenders & Proposals: Winning Business Through Best)
ISBN: 0749454202
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 145
Authors: Harold Lewis

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