Chapter 15: Defining Outputs and Deliverables


There is a useful distinction to be made between the outputs and the deliverables of a contract. Outputs are the results the client wants to achieve - the outcome of the time, skills, energy and other resources put into the assignment. Deliverables are the items or services the bidder undertakes or is required to produce at a specified time and place, rather as a supplier delivers goods to a buyer. For example, advice on business strategy is a typical output of management consultancy: the corresponding deliverables will be either tangible items, such as reports and other documents that communicate the means of putting the strategy into effect, or demonstrable services such as management seminars.

Experienced clients know the importance of producing bid specifications that are 'output-oriented' - focused on the needs they are aiming to satisfy and the benefits the contract is meant to yield. They are looking for responses that recognize the intended outputs of the contract and demonstrate an informed understanding of their priorities. This means, among other matters, explaining how the way you work will obtain results that meet the client's targets and expectations. It also means making down-to-earth, practical points that tell the client you understand the logistic essentials for fulfilling the contract successfully.

Contract Deliverables

The bid documentation will normally make clear what the client requires by way of deliverables. These requirements may be set out in the form of a schedule of deliverables that reflects stages in the contract, the completion of particular activities or key decision points. Each date in the schedule sets a performance target for the team undertaking the work, enabling the client to check the direction and progress of the contract and to assess whether or not it is yielding its intended benefits. If the client includes a schedule of deliverables, you should either confirm adherence to it or explain the reasons for wanting to change it.

If the client has set no explicit schedule, it is important to indicate as precisely as possible what deliverables you are proposing to produce and when they will be submitted. This information has to be consistent with your work plan and methodology (Chapter 13). Include the schedule of deliverables on the work programme bar chart. Make sure the schedule is realistic: colleagues will not thank you for committing them to impossible deadlines, or for imposing an undue burden of document management on top of their technical responsibilities. Indicate specific quality management procedures that you apply to particular types of deliverables. The content, timing and sequence of deliverables may warrant a separate section of the bid - particularly if their early or prompt delivery can offer a competitive advantage.

One point that should be defined in the bid specification is the final deliverable that will allow the work to be signed off, marking the satisfactory completion of the contract. In many areas of procurement this takes the form of a completion report that the client will need to approve (see below). It may also be a presentation to interests such as directors, committee members, stakeholders or community groups, or a technical workshop at which findings are explained and their implications debated. If the identity of this deliverable is not made clear in the specification, you will need to indicate your assumptions about the matter.

There is a vast diversity of items and services that may be required as contract deliverables. One category of deliverable common to almost all consultancy and services contracts is management documentation such as progress and monitoring reports. Technical reports and other project-related documents often form the principal deliverables of consultancy assignments. But documentation is far from the whole story. Service contracts in particular are associated with a huge range of deliverables reflecting the products and characteristics of each sector of activity.

Management documentation

Progress reports

Except when the assignment is short, clients will normally wish to receive progress reports either at regular intervals - say, monthly or quarterly - or on a schedule related to contract review meetings or technical and financial auditing regimes. There may be a requirement to submit the reports as hard copy, in electronic format or online. In writing about progress reports in the bid, you may wish to set out your understanding of their function, which is to:

  • record the status of work and progress toward meeting targets;

  • review the performance of components of the work programme;

  • list the deliverables produced during the reporting period;

  • identify items needing to be discussed - for example, deviations from the work plan, constraints on progress or possible causes of delay;

  • define recovery actions and procedures, where necessary to bring the work back on track;

  • provide data on resources consumed during the reporting period, project costs and productivity, together with financial estimates for budget control;

  • outline the work scheduled for the following reporting period.

Inception reports

As the term implies, an inception report is produced at or near the start of the contract: on long-term assignments, it is normal for clients to require an inception report within one to three months of the start date or the date of contract signature. Its purpose is to set out a finalized and agreed programme for achieving each component task, developed in the light of discussions with the client and the availability of data. Only when you have actually got down to work will you be in a position to check the assumptions made in your bid, to see the needs of the client in a fully informed perspective, to gauge the exact demands of the contract and to develop a work plan and implementation schedule to the level of detail needed for effective management control. Requirements for additional items of work or additional staff inputs can be identified in this report.

An inception report typically contains the following information:

  • a summary of initial meetings and discussions with the client and other parties;

  • an analysis of issues raised in the course of discussions;

  • a detailed work programme, perhaps with method statements and a critical path network;

  • an indication of the scope and timing of additional technical input or other items that may be necessary or advisable;

  • where appropriate, arrangements for liaison and consultation with other bodies such as community and interest groups;

  • a statement of technical or management points that remain to be resolved.

Completion report

If a formal completion report is required for close-out and processing of the final payment, this normally has to be submitted no later than one month after the end of the contract. The report may include the following management-related material:

  • an overview of the project, commenting on the course of the work and the extent to which its objectives and outputs have been achieved;

  • an explanation of problems encountered and corrective action undertaken;

  • a financial analysis of the contract;

  • recommendations for further action.

Technical documentation

Technical notes and topic reports

It can be useful to indicate your readiness to provide notes and memoranda, topic reports and so forth explaining technical analyses and procedures, and the bid specification may identify a requirement for supporting material; but avoid committing yourself to an open-ended sequence of background documentation. Make the point that the extent of the requirement for this form of deliverable will need to be the subject of agreement between the client and yourself.

Interim or mid-term reports

These are normally timed to coincide with events such as the completion of a stage in the contract or a decision point or project milestone. They explain the work done so far, set out preliminary results, indicate alternatives or options to be examined and draw guidelines for subsequent work.

Final reports

A final report may need to take the form of an extensive set of documents. It is essential to submit the report first in draft so that the client can review it, correct inaccuracies, request amendments on points that may conflict with technical, political or cultural sensitivities, and in due course give approval to the report - particularly when the document will carry the client's name.

Summary reports

These provide concise versions of the technical documentation, principally in the form of 'executive' summaries, intended to give managers, investors and other decision makers an immediate and sharply focused view of the key results of the work. A summary may be included in the body of a report, but it may also be useful for it to be printed as a separate document that can be circulated more widely and cost-effectively than the report itself. If the contract is concerned with matters that are to be the subject of public consultation or community involvement, a consultation summary written especially to communicate the issues in non-technical language should be listed among the deliverables.

Tender and contract documentation

Where the work is one part or phase of a programme or sequence of contracts, the deliverables may include items such as the drafting of terms of reference and tender documents for subsequent phases or for related projects, guidelines for contractors or consultants, calculation of works, bills of quantities and cost estimates.

Other forms of technical deliverable

From drawings, plans and design guides to digital video and Web site content, there are innumerable kinds of technical deliverable that may need to be produced as part of a contract: check the bid specification carefully for any detailed requirements the client may have defined in respect of format, presentation, conformity to standards and so forth.

Report production

Clients may specify the number of hard copies of each document they will need, the arrangements for review and approval, the preferred document layout and requirements for documents to be produced in electronic form as well as on paper. Formatting requirements may also be identified in terms of operating systems and software. When these details are not indicated in the bid specification, try to discover the characteristics of the client's operating environment and, if possible, refer in the bid to the fact that your output will be compatible.

Usually the client will expect to have ownership of the physical 'original' from which a report was printed and the computer disks holding the document files. Indicate your understanding on this point. If the final or interim report is to be published for a broader readership than the client's staff, you will need to find out whether it is to appear as a report presenting the views of the client or as a report from an independent source of professional opinion. When contractors' reports are published, it is normally under the imprint of the client that paid for the work, though in some circumstances it may be appropriate to opt for a more detached presentation, while there are clients who may feel uncomfortable about publishing a document reflecting an independent viewpoint rather than corporate policy. Some clients believe that requiring contractors to produce a report destined for a wide public is likely to secure higher-quality results and a more considered presentation.




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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