Because proposal work is tedious and maddening, and sometimes maddening and tedious, one must have some fun. This week I reviewed a Request For Proposal for a database system that requires 'predictive intelligence'. Two items stood out in the spreadsheet:
28) iii
32) viii
That's the whole statement for those two requirements. Now it is the job of the analsyt to interpret vague requirements and that is what I did.
28) iii
"Vendor interprets this in accordance with the Third Eye requirement and bids four weeks to develop this as an XML interface. The customer agency is required to select and provide a Third Eye system to the contractor for the purpose of developing and testing this interface. Vendor shall provide an XML Schema for the EspXML language."
32) viii
"Vendor interprets this as the Instant Answer requirement. Vendor bids third party Eight Ball Magic Answer product from Whammo. Customer will receive Train The Trainer courses for this product. The bid is item cost current on delivery ($9.99 at Wal-Mart) plus a 30% markup. Training costs are for one week at $5995."
Somedays, this business is fun.
