Bid Writing for Project Managers

Book excerpt: When do commercial projects go wrong? Conventional management texts only tackle the issues that arise between project startup and closure. Yet some of the worst problems (e.g. unrealistic objectives, faulty assumptions, poorly understood constraints) are 'programmed in' at conception when the bid is written, long before the project manager is brought on board at project startup. If the bid is misconceived, no amount of clever project management is going to recover the situation. Involving the designated project manager at the bidding stage is becoming the norm in many commercial organisations. Some go one step better, making the project manager the bid manager where he or she is thus able to direct all aspects of the project's conception. This is the essence of planning for project success in the bidding stage, the main theme of this book. But many project managers are unfamiliar with the pitfalls of competitive bidding and don't know how to balance the competing demands of a compelling sales messages with a realistic delivery plan. Bid Writing for Project Managers will guide prospective project managers through the bid-writing lifecycle, providing comprehensive guidelines and numerous tips on how to craft a winning bid and how to set the project up with the best possible chance of success.