After you have created an Evaluation Project, all RFP Responses that you have included in the Evaluation Project show up in the RFP Response table.

When you select a table row, you will see the RFP Response Evaluation Tree (RFP Tree, for short) as well as the Context Detail View change. However, initially, you may not notice a change in the RFP Tree View as long as the header node is selected and only part of the RFP Tree is visible.

The RFP Tree is the result of a virtual merge of

• the Private RFP
  
• the respective offeror's RFP Response
• your (the Evaluator's) assessment of the RFP Response.
  

Now, you may start editing the Evaluation Project, which boils down to assigning Requirement Fulfillment Grades, Requirement Fulfillment Weights, and annotations.

Assigning Requirement Fulfillment Grades 

Editing an Evaluation Project requires you to assign Requirement Fulfillment Grades to Requirements. While an RFP Response already contains Requirement Fulfillment Grades which reflect the offeror's viewpoint, you can assign Requirement Fulfillment Grades that reflect the Evaluator's viewpoint.

Quite naturally, since an offeror wants to sell you something, for example, an offeror's assessment whether a Requirement is fully met or not may differ from your assessment. Therefore, you need to be able to bring to bear your own experience and assessment. 

All Requirements that have not yet been assigned Requirement Fulfillment Grade from the Evaluator's viewpoint are visually marked. If you agree with the offeror's assessment, you can simply accept it by pressing the 'Accept' button. If this is not the case, select a value from the drop-down list.

Assigning Requirement Fulfillment Weights

You can fine-tune your assessment by assigning a Requirement Fulfillment Weight. If you feel that a feature or solution justifies a higher score, you can increase the Requirement Fulfillment Weight value well beyond the 100% mark. If, on the other hand, you think that a particular score value should be lower, you can decrease the weight value.

Verifying Assessments 

It is required that Requirement Fulfillment Grade assignments be verified (please see the check box labeled 'Verified'). The graphical symbol will disappear after you have assigned a Requirement Fulfillment Grade and verified your assessment.

If you are the only person involved in the Evaluation Project, you may do value assignment and verification in one pass, or you may wish to do the verification in a separate step, giving yourself some thinking time.

If there is an organization policy that requires at least two people to be involved in an evaluation, it may be a reasonable approach to have one person make initial assessment, while another person does the verification.

Influencing Score Computation Results

Although you cannot modify the formula that score computation relies on (please see 'How Score Computation Works '), you can indeed influence the outcome of score computation.

In the Evaluation Project Editor, you can modify Requirement Level values and modify Requirement Fulfillment Grade values.

In addition, you can also use Requirement Fulfillment Weights (please see above) to influence score computation results. 

Viewing Results in the Evaluation Project Spreadsheet

Score values are computed in real-time as you assign or change Requirement Fulfillment Grades. The Evaluation Project Spreadsheet is updated whenever a score value changes.

The Evaluation Project Spreadsheet contains Requirement Groups and Requirements in tabular form. Other RFP information is not included and the hierarchical structure of the underlying RFP is flattened.

When you select a Requirement Group or Requirement in the RFP Tree, you will see the corresponding line in the Evaluation Project Spreadsheet also being selected. This makes it easy for you to compare score values for the currently selected RFP Tree node.