A Project Proposal is a document which you present to the Head of Supply Chain, CFO, AO (depending on your organisation’s delegations of authority)
to either motivate for funding or get your project approved.
Project Proposals contain key information about a project.
They are essential for your decision makers since they’ll use them to evaluate the project and determine whether or not they’ll allocate funds for it and/or approve it.
A Project Proposal is generally drafted during the Opportunity Assessment phase of your project (before detailed plans are made and resources are allocated).
Therefore, time and budget estimates are rough, at best.
Project proposals do not follow the ‘one size fits all’ principle.
This can be attributed to the fact that there are many different types of proposals, all serving a unique purpose in their own right.
Proposals can be internal (within your organization) or external (written to the provincial treasury for example). They can be solicited or unsolicited.
Also, the amount of detail used when outlining proposals can vary significantly.
In certain cases a few very short and general phrases is sufficient (when the proposal is 2-3 pages),
while in other cases all the major points must be set out in detail (then the proposal would be 30-50 pages). Keep the proposal as short and concise as possible.
A Project Proposal should not to be confused with a full Project Charter. Sponsors merely sign the Project Proposal to approve its contents.
After signing and approving the Project Proposal the Sourcing Specialist starts drafting the following documents: a project charter, project plan, etc.
Despite the fact that many different formats are available, roughly 80- 90% of all Project Proposals follow a similar template.
They mostly all have the same structure which contains a few key points. We have compiled a template in the toolkit to help you draft a Project Proposal. Objective:
The objective of the project proposal is to obtain approval to initiate a strategic sourcing initiative that was identified during the portfolio analysis.
Output:
An approved project proposal as per the table