What is a Request For Proposal (RFP)?

Request For Proposal (RFP)
A RFP is a document created to ask interested organizations to submit a plan to solve a problem. These plans are then used by the requesting company to decide which organization is best suited to complete the task.
A RFP is composed of the following three major pieces:
- A summary of RFP's objective
- Information on the company that is requesting the proposed work
- Detailed information about what is being requested
The detailed information contains the following:
- A timeline for the project including when it will start
- Information about the cost of the given proposal
- Extra requests that are not required but would be good additions to the project
- Suggestion of how the proposal should be organized
Motivate Discussion
The idea of a request for a proposal may be a brand new concept. It is important that they understand what an RFP is because they will be challenged to respond to one as part of this STEM Lab.
Q: Why do you think a clear objective would be an important part of the RFP?
A: A clear objective assists prospective vendors in creating a proposal to solve the specific problem of the company.
Q: Which of the four pieces of detailed information do you think is the most important?
A: Answers may vary but should focus on determining whether vendors gained enough information to decide if they want to submit a proposal and what would be required to create an acceptable one.
Q: Why would the company give a suggestion on how the proposal should be organized?
A: Having proposals share a uniform structure promotes ease and efficiency in evaluating them.