Before a tender
This checklist is for the procurement officer and project manager of a public body, before the tender is published. It points to the procurement section of this help for each step.
Note This page describes features and common practice; it is not legal advice. Check the procurement law and rules that apply to your organization with your procurement and legal counsel.
Contents
Needs
- To do: Goals of the site written down: audiences, services, languages, volume of content.
- To do: Current site and content inventoried (Site map and content inventory).
- To do: Legal duties listed with counsel: accessibility, privacy, records, languages, FOI.
- To do: What you buy decided: software services, implementation, hosting, support, training, or a combination (Procuring Exponential in the public sector).
Requirements
- To do: Requirements written so each can be verified (Requirements).
- To do: Each requirement mapped to the evidence you will ask for; where the open source project has none (VPAT, ASVS assessment, SLA), ask bidders to provide it (Procuring Exponential).
- To do: Accessibility target stated (for example WCAG 2.2 AA for the public site) (Accessibility standards).
- To do: Hosting and data location stated.
- To do: No requirement that only one product or supplier can meet without reason.
Market and evidence
- To do: A test installation tried by your own team:
./console exp:install --applyon SQLite (Installing Exponential in one command). - To do: The standards pages read: accessibility, security, privacy.
- To do: Supported versions and release policy understood (Supported versions).
- To do: Possible suppliers and partners known (Partners: start here); market consultation done within your rules.
Evaluation
- To do: Criteria and weights fixed and published with the tender (Evaluation).
- To do: Panel named, conflicts of interest declared.
- To do: Demo script and proof-of-concept tasks prepared.
- To do: Reference check questions prepared.
Money and time
- To do: Budget built on total cost of ownership over the whole term, not the first year (Total cost of ownership).
- To do: Training budget (Budgeting training effort).
- To do: Upgrade and security update effort per year (Planning upgrades in the budget).
- To do: Timeline with the tender period, evaluation, standstill and build.
The end, planned at the start
- To do: Exit requirements and clauses in the tender (Exit plans).
- To do: Ownership of custom code and documentation stated; custom extensions delivered under the GPL into a repository you control (Licensing questions).
- To do: Tender clauses drafted from the Tender templates.
Related pages
- Government checklists
- Before signing a contract
- Procuring Exponential in the public sector
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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