Writing a Better RFP: Ten Hints for Obtaining More Successful Evaluation Studies

Abstract

Every year, a great many program evaluation studies are performed under contracts from government agencies. Many of these studies turn out to be low in quality, misleading, irrelevant, and generally unusable. The existence of this problem has been noted many times, and numerous efforts to understand its causes and improve the situation have been attempted.' While these various analyses have a good deal of insight and experience to offer, their recommendations for the most part are of little help to the typical government official responsible for an evaluation study. Such a person usually has relatively little expertise in performing evaluation studies, does not have the authority or influence to change the program design or management system, and has a fairly short time in which to get the study effort underway. Frequently, in fact, he or she does not even have the option of deciding not to go ahead with the study effort. The aim of this article is to offer some hints which experience has shown can greatly improve the chance of success of a contracted evaluation study. The focus is on the RFP (request for proposals) the formal invitation to prospective contractors to submit bids for performing a study. The reason for this focus is simple. The RFP has a strong and enduring influence on the entire course of an evaluation study effort. The winning bidder prepares his/her study plan and assembles a staff specifically to accomplish what the RFP requests. The contractor has only a small amount of flexibility in deviating from the work schedule initially set forth, since he or she has budgeted for a tight schedule, using lower level professionals as much as possible, in order to obtain a low bid. The * The success or failure of a contracted evaluation study is determined, to a great extent, by the characteristics of the request for proposals (RFP). It is only through extensive experience that we are learning what a good evaluation study RFP should look like. A number of the required characteristics apparently are at odds with what many government officials naturally think of, and thus many evaluation studies are doomed even before the first potential contractor begins work on a proposal. This article summarizes much observation and experience into ten helpful hints. They are intended to be useful to the government official who must prepare or approve an RFP. They do not require special analytical expertise nor the authority to redesign programs. More importantly, they do not require any additional time or resources.