Project Part 1

Assignment: Project Part 1 (PP1) entails completing a Request for Proposal (RFP). You may select one of the below procurement cases or use one of your own appropriate procurement cases as the basis for creating an RFP.

RFP Procurement Cases
Select one of the following RFP procurement cases to develop your PP1 RFP.

A New Practice Field

You own a semipro baseball team (in the location of your choice) and you want to construct a new practice field. You own the land already (20 acres). The land is relatively flat and it has only a few dilapidated structures (barns) and trees on it. Connecting up with existing water and sewer lines would present no unusual technical problems. It is now September, and you would love to have that field ready to go by March 2 years hence. Your vision would include the playing field, a small clubhouse, and a parking area that would hold about 50 cars. No spectator seating would be required. The decision to go with one general contractor has already been made.

An Environmental Impact Study

You are a general contractor wishing to put up a modest-sized concrete production plant on the outskirts of town. The plant would operate on only one 10-hour shift per day and would produce about 400 cubic yards of output per day for 6 days per week. It is necessary for an environmental impact study to be undertaken before the county can issue a permit. The biggest issue is, of course, the air quality implications of concrete production, but potential impacts on water quality are of concern as well. It is now October, and you want to start building the plant by the end of next summer, if at all possible. It is now time to issue an RFP to procure an environmental impact analysis. Studies of this type normally require about 3 months of concerted effort by a team of analysts.

An Inventory Control System

You sell seeds from a catalog, and business has been blossoming. However, your inventory tracking system is inadequate. In high season, supply outages have been frequent, and customer complaints over delays have been increasing. You fear that your business will die on the vine unless something is done to improve things. You want to hire a management consultant to design a new inventory tracking system. This kind of work normally requires about 6 months worth of effort. It is now May. You need to issue an RFP for this work. The procurement will be for the design stage only—implementation may or may not be handled under a separate contract at a later date.

Terminal Course Objectives (TCOs): The following TCOs are addressed in the PP1 assignment.

TCO A: Given a project situation, discuss and document the four phases of the procurement cycle and the impact each procurement has on the overall project.

TCO B: Given a project situation, analyze the factors that are important when qualifying and selecting suppliers for a project requirement.

TCO C: Given a project situation for a major contract, examine the key factors, including risk factors that affect buyer and supplier decisions concerning contract pricing and the selection of the proper contract type.

TCO D: Given a procurement situation for a major contract, analyze the application of e-procurement and other types of supplier bidding models available.

TCO E: Given a situation to solicit a bid proposal, evaluate technical, management, commercial, and ethical requirements, and then prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Resources: Obviously, the PMBOK® Guide is a good starting point as well as Chapters 1 through 8 of World Class Contracting. Please be advised that considerable relevant material is also available on the Internet, so you might want to conduct a search for materials that may yield insights into the RFP development process. Use the RFP template from your PP1 assignment, which was downloaded from the Doc Sharing area.

Procedures and Deadline: All project issues should be brought up in the Q & A Forum or addressed in class. The PP1 RFP should be prepared in an MS Word format suitable for electronic transmission. Any resources used beyond the textbooks need to be cited in your document, including links to relevant websites. Be sure to include footnotes and a bibliography.

Submission Details: All PP1 documents must be submitted no later than the end of Week 4. Submit a copy of your RFP to the Dropbox created for this purpose.

Clarification on Assignment: All questions of a clarification nature should be asked in the weekly Q & A Forum discussion topic.