Quality criteria for assessing whether an RFP compliance matrix has been completed correctly
How do you know if your compliance matrix has been properly completed?
Compliance Matrix Quality
A compliance matrix should be fully validated prior to writing the proposal based on it. Changes in the outline or allocation of RFP requirements to the proposal after writing starts can be very disruptive. Reviewing a compliance matrix can take as long as it did to create the compliance matrix in the first place. Nonetheless, ensuring the compliance matrix is accurate is absolutely vital to proposal success.
The following is intended to be used as a checklist both by the author of the compliance matrix and by any subsequent reviewers to ensure that the compliance matrix is correct. These criteria should be applied to every row in your compliance matrix.
- Does the compliance matrix reflect all relevant RFP requirements? Are any RFP requirements that require a written response missing from the matrix?
- Do any RFP requirements in the matrix need to be parsed into separate items so they may be allocated to proposal sections individually?
- Is each RFP requirement in the matrix linked to the correct proposal sections?
- Is each proposal section linked to all RFP requirements that should be written to in that section?
- Are all judgment calls and RFP interpretations valid and do they reflect what the customer intended?
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Will the proposal produced by following the compliance matrix reflect what the customer wants to see in the proposal?
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