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Definition: Differentiate between client and customer:
client is someone who would like your help in creating a
product or service for someone; a customer is the person who
pays for some service or product.
1. Audience of the document
Four recipients of your business proposal are:
Organization’s Management, client, customer, team members.
Each of these has a different focus.
- Management: cost is the important factor - ROI in form of
new customers, new projects from existing customers, profit
from the project
- Client: how the project will help client gain market
share; what you know about the market trends & competition;
sharing of costs; time-frames; assumptions of inputs from
client, discussions and dialogues between client and his
customer(s); what client feels/knows about his market.
- Customer: Benefits possible - how & why the features will
give the benefits
- Team members: very specific and detailed Requirements with
a lot of technical details - list of assumptions made and
why they are valid assumptions
2. Define your Customer profile
Start with image of customer: who he is -- what his needs
are -- determine how u can do any of the following for your
customer: (a) reduce his pain (b) increase his gain (c)
fulfill some need - articulated or as yet unknown: describe
the need and how your solution addresses this need; are
there any side effects and benefits as a result of
fulfilling this need?
3. Who is the product/service aimed at?
Select one of the following:(a) Direct to customer, (b)
known client, (c) Unknown client ie. Proposal to be
forwarded to a few potential clients - define
characteristics of the client
4. Select one of the following (read product as
product/service):
- Product already exists - to be enhanced
- Competitor has a product with deficiencies
- Competitor has an excellent product in the making
- Competitor has an excellent product already in the
market with same features
- Unknown product - describe what the new product will do;
what will it achieve for the customer, for the client.
5. In step 4, you have selected the product/service for
which the proposal is being created. Next select one of the
following:
(a) Features set well-defined and classified as mandatory,
desirable and cosmetic
(b) Unknown features - it is the feature set which has to be
composed & proposed
6. Whatever the combination of choices in Step 4 and 5, some
basic research should be done. For article on how to
complete your research fast read my article "How to research
or Google a topic". Research: Technology - Market trends -
Clients product portfolios- Competitors’ offerings and plans
7. Define System usage scenarios - include fault handling,
administration, management; Software Requirement
Specifications (SRS).
8. Industry Standards
Does the product need to adhere to industry standards: some
defacto norms, some well-documented material like IEEE, IETF
standards and drafts? Would you need to interact with
proprietary components? E.g. Windows internals? Some
interfaces not explicitly defined by IEEE, IETF standards or
standards available in the industry?
9. Project details
What tools will you use during the project? What
infrastructure is required for the project: lab equipment,
software licenses, manpower resources with desired skill
sets defined, management resources required. What are the
escalation points for the project? What is the estimated
schedule, cost and effort for execution of the project? What
is the maximum variance of these factors? What is the
guaranteed quality of the deliverables?
10. Marketing of the product/service
How will the project deliverable be marketed? Which features
will be highlighted? How do the features translate to
benefits? It is a good idea for the project team to have a
copy of the marketing material in front of them while they
develop the product. This will help the team focus on the
important features and not the complex ones.
Related Reading
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"How to Research or Google a Topic"
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