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Appointing a Selection Team

• issuing an RFP;
• evaluating the technical content of the proposals received, as well as the vendors themselves and their products;
• recommending a specific solution to the steering committee; and
• developing a contract with the selected supplier.

The project management team may perform these tasks, or the project manager may elect to appoint a subset of the management team to function as a selection team. Whatever approach is chosen, the composition of the selection team needs to include members of the project management team who have been engaged in aligning the business and technical needs into the requirements document, as well as at least one member of the steering committee who can interpret institutional strategic directions as outlined by that body. In addition to these representatives who have been involved with the process in previous stages, the project manager may wish to consider including the following additional representation:

• A representative from the purchasing department or similar post, since the team will benefit from formal process advice as the project nears contract stages
• Representation from the central computing operations and systems areas, since many of the issues that will need definition will relate to day-to-day operations, possible development issues, security and utility software, and validation of report and performance requirements
• Representation from members of business teams that have documented specific requirements for various application areas such as accounts payable, general ledger, payroll, and so forth, to evaluate written proposals or demonstrations of application systems

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