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Thanks for replying, this is great food for thought.

I think you are agreeing with the idea that the RFP process is in part about risk management when you say "The main motivation is to ensure that the RFP survives any scrutiny should the project go off the rails for any reason."

I think that is more and more true in larger and larger organizations. One of the challenges for smaller not-for-profits in dealing with the RFP process, is recognizing that it isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. A government department or large corporation doing an RFP is fundamentally different from a three person not-for-profit organization doing an RFP. And yet, at Freeform we often see really small organizations with practically no capacity to engage in a full blown government-style RFP process, trying to emulate what they have seen/heard other people doing.

I think we agree that there are too many ideas bundled up into the process as it's typically carried out...you suggest moving price negotiation to a separate stage and I would say a big yes to that. I think that is perhaps one of the hardest parts of these ideas to swallow though, since for many, the price is perceived as intrinsically tied up with the risk.

Thanks for mentioning Requests for Information (RFI) and Requests for Quotes (RFQ). These other approaches can certainly be useful.

No easy answers!

--Julian