Specifications for your Project prioritization

When the Steering Committee has to prioritize 125 projects in the project portfolio, it's a bit hard to keep track. Everyone has their own “urgent” projects, and filling in the roadmap for the next few quarters ultimately depends on who's talking loudest or who's best buddies with the CEO.

Get ready for your next tender

You want to take your project portfolio management to the next level, and you feel good about it: your company needs a reliable PPM tool, adapted to your transformation plan and your project culture. Result: you intend to launch a call for tenders.
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To succeed in this process, you need to know the reality experienced by software solution providers: they are generally over-solicited, and are overwhelmed by specifications in different formats. So much so that it is complex for them to respond in a 100% relevant manner to each of the requests that are sent to them.
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Do you want to get the right answers to your questions? You must then be as clear as possible in your specifications.
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Thanks to the customizable specifications template that we offer here, you will be able to both properly frame your PPM software project, and prove your seriousness to the suppliers you are going to contact.
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The result: a simpler and faster tender for everyone, and for you, a project portfolio management solution that is fully adapted to your needs.
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It's up to you to play!

Bertran Ruiz

CEO AirSaas

1. Context of your request

In this part, summarize the general context of your PPM software project. Also highlight the contributors to your project.

Project sponsors

To be filled

Persons involved in choosing the final solution

To be filled

People involved in integrating the solution

To be filled

IT technical contributor

Persons involved in maintaining the services or in the administration of the software, for example

2. Description of the existing

Here, it is a question of describing your current project portfolio, as well as the existing processes and software that you use for your project portfolio management.

Number and types of projects in the portfolio

To be filled

Number of people who are going to use the PPM software in the organization

To be filled

Software used (if there is one) or process set up for the PPM

To be filled

Existing software features

Describe what features you want to keep in your new software, and which are not necessarily required.

Processes currently used for PPM that work well in your organization

Describe the PPM processes that work well in your organization, and that you would like to maintain with your new tool.

AirSaaS advice in +

Note : In this part, feel free to create a diagram of the organization of your current portfolio management process. This will not only allow you to be clear about your expectations, but also for your service provider to understand precisely how its tool can help you gain in performance.

3. Description of operational and functional requirements

Many specifications for PPM software describe their needs from the point of view of the functionalities expected from the solution. Result: the teams end up with software that is not necessarily adapted to their real needs!

Here, we offer you a specification template based on the PPT methodology: People, Process, Tool. This methodology makes it possible to start from the operational needs of the teams that will use the software, in order to choose a solution that is as close as possible to the reality of the company.

Description of operational and functional requirements

People

Today's process

Tomorrow's process

Expected from the tool

Bonus

PMO

No prioritization of projects

Prioritization of projects according to the company's business objectives

Macro visualization of the various projects in progress in a visual roadmap

Scoping sheets to be completed collaboratively

How do I complete this part?

People : list the people in your organization who are going to use the PPM solution
Today's process : for each of the people listed in the first column, describe your existing processes for project portfolio management
Tomorrow's process : for each of the people listed above, describe how you would like to see your processes evolve thanks to your new PPM tool
Expected from the tool : in view of the processes of tomorrow that you have listed, describe the concrete results you expect from your tool (for example, in terms of saving time, budget, resources, simplifying processes, etc.). Feel free to provide results based on performance metrics, if possible.
Bonus : if necessary, add this column to describe results or functionalities that can make the difference between the different PPM tools you are considering

4. Project IT requirements

Here, list all the requirements you have regarding the quality, security, and IT performance of your future PPM software.

IT standards to be respected

IT security or quality standards that you follow

security

Data protection and confidentiality, data traceability, protected server hosting, data backups...

Performance and service level

Sizing the number of users and the number of projects per year, availability of the platform, commitment to service continuity...

Export functions

In what formats do you want to export the data from your PPM software

Integrations

Integrations with your other tools (project management tool, internal communication tool, ticket management tool, task management tool...)

Ergonomics and usability

UX, accessibility, documentation available...

Reversibility

Solution migration capacity

Historization

Archiving of the various data required

References

How many users of the solution? How many references in your country/sector of activity?

Supply of the solution

SaaS mode, storage capacities...

5. Project Purchasing Requirements

Here, list all the quality requirements and standards expected by your company's procurement department.

Budget

To be filled

Other standards to be respected

Quality or management standards that you follow. For example, indicate here whether the supplier company should be hosted in France.

Supplier company references

How many users of the solution? How many references in your country/sector of activity?

Supplier business figures

Indicate here if you have vendor business performance requirements. For example, if your project should not represent more than X% of the supplier's turnover.

Preliminary solution testing

If yes, how much testing time should be planned?

Deadlines

Date of testing the planned solution, date of start of the planned service...

6. Accompaniment

Here, describe the type and level of support you expect from your supplier.

Initial support

Data migration, configuration, integration, implementation of a pilot, training users in the solution...

Support

User support, incident management, acquisition of additional licenses...

7. Rating system

Here, the aim is to create a table of compliance with the expectations, constraints and requirements detailed earlier in your specifications. The methodology we are offering you here for your evaluation system is different from what is generally done during software tenders.

As a general rule, the project sponsor designs a system for prioritizing expectations, in the form of”Must-Have”,”Should have” or”Could have”. Faced with the suppliers' responses, the client then completes an evaluation system, to see if each software meets its expectations.

Here, we recommend instead that you create an evaluation system that your providers themselves will fill out, using tangible questions. This system will allow you to save time on your end, and to limit the back-and-forth between you and the suppliers on specific technical questions.

The idea here is to create:

A list of criteria that are important to you
A question associated with each criterion
Standard answers that allow you to assign a grade to each of the criteria
A free field, in which the service provider comes to write a justification for its response and its rating

Rating system — *For example, if it is important for you to ensure that your provider has a business continuity policy, you could create the following evaluation criteria:*

Question : Is a business continuity policy and plan defined?

‍Possible answers :

Level 1 (“At Risk”): Continuity activities are informal.
Level 2 (“Partial”): There is a formal policy and continuity plan that is shared, reviewed, and updated annually. The plan covers internal activities.
Level 3 (“Advanced”): The continuity policy is published and communicated to the stakeholders. The continuity plan is published, communicated to stakeholders and implemented. The plan covers internal and outsourced activities.
Level 4 (“Adapted”): The continuity plan is updated and applied in response to an incident, a change in internal governance, law or regulation.

Do you need a template to create your evaluation system?

Download our Template customizable scoring!

Download

Good practices to successfully complete your call for tenders and specifications

📣 Collect needs internally before writing your specifications. Take the time to organize meetings of brainstorming with all the stakeholders in your project, and organize interviews in One-to-one with decision makers and users of the final solution.
🗒️ Be comprehensive. Too much information is better than not enough! Give all the keys to context, needs and constraints to the service providers to whom you send your specifications, to limit the number of round trips with them.
📊 Be synthetic. Use diagrams and mockups if necessary to clarify what you wrote in your specifications.

*Example of a diagram to show the expected integrations*

✅ Have the specifications validated by all your stakeholders involved before sending it to your provider. This will prevent you from wasting time having to change it. a posteriori, by re-explaining to your service providers that your choice criteria have changed.
‍🤝 Promise an interview by One-to-one to your suppliers with the final decision maker. Is it important for you that you find the right tool to satisfy this decision maker? So organize a face-to-face interview with the suppliers you plan to work with beforehand. This will allow your potential service providers to be reassured that you are interested in their solution.

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