Chapter 2
Needs Identification
Learning Objectives
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Review the project life cycle
 identifying needs
 proposing a solution
 performing the project
 terminating the project
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Focus on needs identification
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Identify needs and select projects
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Develop RFPs
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The proposal solicitation process
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Real World Example
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Vignette: Successful Messaging Services in Poland
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Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) is Poland’s leading wireless services
provider, and maintains Era, the largest mobile network in Poland.
Powered by Sun Internet Mail Services (SIMS), PTC introduced
Eranet, a messaging system designed to notify mobile subscribers
by cell phone text messages when they have new e-mail.
• Expanded offerings to customers by delivering two-way SMS
services.
• A detailed needs assessment was a key to its success
Sun Services helped to map out requirements for the Eranet project
from the beginning and remained involved at every stage.
• They developed an implementation plan, first determining needs
and then designing effective solutions.
• Project was completed in just 12 months – 50% earlier than
anticipated.
With the implementation of the new Sun e-mail software, PTC was
able to grow its subscriber base by approximately 80 percent in one
year, with the anticipation of further growth.
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Real World Example
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Vignette: Red Light, Green Light
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Catherine Aczel Boivie joined Pacific Blue Cross in 2003 as VP of
Information Technology.
She and the CEO agreed on two principles:
(1) Technology has no value alone, and
(2) technology management needs to focus on enabling business
as opposed to operations.
Pacific Blue Cross created a Balanced Scorecard that displays and
measures the organization’s performance from six perspectives:
qualitative, quantitative, infrastructure, clients, people, and
community-related goals.
She introduced the project management office (PMO) function.
• Traffic Light Report: allows PMO to report project status
In the 2nd year, she introduced a gating process
Boivie is confident that the project management processes she put
in place will help ensure advancing business goals, on time and
within budget.
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Needs Identification
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It is the initial phase of the project lifecycle
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Starts with recognition of a need, problem, or
opportunity
Ends with the issuance of a request for proposal
(RFP)
Customer identifies a need, a problem, or
an opportunity for a better way of doing
something

Sees benefit in undertaking a project to result in
improvement
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Needs Identification (Cont.)

Prior to preparing an RFP:
Recognize a need, problem, or
opportunity
 Clearly define the problem or need
 Quantify the problem
 Determine the budget
 Select the project(s) with the greatest
benefit for the cost expended
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Project Selection
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Involves evaluating various needs or
opportunities, and then deciding which of
these should move forward as a project to
be implemented
Steps in project selection:
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Develop a set of criteria against which each opportunity will
be evaluated
List the assumptions
Gather data and information for each opportunity
Evaluate each opportunity against the criteria
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Project Selection (Cont.)
Group consensus lead to better
quality decision and higher
acceptance of the decision
 Effective approach – selection
committee to develop a set of
evaluation criteria
 In most cases selection based on a
combination of quantitative and
qualitative evaluation
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal
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State, comprehensively and in detail,
what is required, from the customer’s
point of view
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Enable contractors or a project team to
understand what the customer expects so
that they can prepare a thorough
proposal
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The need may be communicated
informally—and sometimes only orally
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal (Cont.)

Guidelines for drafting a formal RFP to
external contractors:
 statement of work (SOW)
 customer requirements
 deliverables
 customer-supplied items
 approvals required by the customer
 type of contract
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal (Cont.)
the payment terms
 the required schedule for completion
 instructions for the format and content
of the contractor proposals
 due date for proposals
 evaluation criteria
 occasionally will indicate the funds the
customer has available
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Soliciting Proposals
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Methods:
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Identify a selected group of contractors in
advance and sending each an RFP
Advertise in certain business newspapers
Process considered a competitive
situation
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Soliciting Proposals (Cont.)
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Don’t provide information that is not
provided to all contractors
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May hold a bidders’ meeting to explain
the RFP and answer questions
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Not all use RFP
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