When you use the Standard Edition of the Evaluation Specification Editor (ESEdit), you will see ready-for-use Evaluation Specifications in the 'Central Repository' tab. Apart from the demo Evaluation Specification, you will need a license key to be able to import an Evaluation Specification for editing.

If you use the Content Provider Edition of the Evaluation Specification Editor (ESEdit-CPE), you will see template Evaluation Specifications in the 'Central Repository' tab. You will need a 'Content Authoring License' (CAL) to be able to author Evaluation Specifications.

Provided that you have the required license, you would use the 'Import' function to open an Evaluation Specification (Template) for editing.

Editing an Evaluation Specification 

You can add new nodes and fill in the necessary information. ESEdit checks in real-time whether information is formally complete. All nodes with incomplete information are visually marked. The visual marker disappears when you type in information that appears to be formally correct.

It is recommended to carefully think about Requirement Group Weight and Requirement Weight values when you edit an Evaluation Specification. For more information, please read 'How Score Computation Works '.

Checking the Document Structure 

The Evaluation Specification Editor takes care that your document structure is always formally correct. However, it does not check in real-time whether there are any branch nodes without leaf nodes. You can make ESEdit check the document structure via the 'Check Document Structure' menu option. It will mark branch nodes that have no child nodes. For example, a 'Requirement Group' node must have one or more children as leaf nodes (i.e. 'Requirement' nodes).

Setting the Document Status

An Evaluation Specification is initially assigned 'Draft' status. When you are ready to submit the Evaluation Specification for final approval, you would set the document status to 'Approval Pending'. Finally, if the document has been officially approved, you can set the status to 'Approved'.

To be able to generate a Private RFP, the Evaluation Specification must have been approved.