Page 170 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

BUYING AN AFIS SYSTEM: THE BASIC DOCUMENTS NEEDED 155

7.5.1 SOURCE SELECTION PLAN

A clear and detailed source selection plan will give the source selection team a
basis from which they can differentiate one proposal from another and high-
light the strengths and weaknesses of the different proposals.
The source selection plan must reflect the RFP. If the proposal preparation
instructions do not ask for a certain type of information (e.g., location of train-
ing), then that should not be an evaluation criterion. The source selection
plan as well as the RFP should be based on the decisions made in the pre-
acquisition phase and documented in the ConOps and acquisition strategy. As
the complexity of the procurement and the RFP increase, so too does the need
for an increased involvement of experts and users in the source selection
process.
Those assigned to source selection will need to dedicate a couple of weeks
to reading, analyzing, and documenting the strengths, weaknesses, and open
issues associated with all of the submitted proposals. Clarifications are typically
sent to the bidders when a proposal is too ambiguous, appears to have over-
looked a requirement, etc. It is a local policy decision if vendors can submit
wholesale changes to their proposals in response to a clarification request.
The source selection process requires the a priori selection of evaluation
criteria and relative weights. The plan documents process and the associated
evaluation forms. Evaluation criteria for rated requirements should provide
examples of excellent, very good, acceptable, and poor ratings. Otherwise,
there will be too many subjective considerations based on personal levels of
expectations. Likewise, reviewers will tend to be harsher on the first or last pro-
posal, as they become more aware of the state of proposal writing. Prior to
seeing the proposals, reviewers should take a short training course with a few
examples of appropriate ratings explained to them.
When setting the relative weights for cost, technical expertise, management,
oral presentations, and benchmarking, be sure to leave enough weight for the
last of these so that the winner is not likely to have already been selected before
considering the benchmark results. Cost should not be weighted too high, as
the lowest bidder is not always the one who understands what you want. You
have to balance cost and likelihood of success.

7.5.2 STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW)
Working from the high-level plans for AFIS functionality spelled out in the
ConOps document, the project development team must generate a detailed
requirements specification document that lists all of the functional require-