Traditionally, specifications used for tendering tend to be very detailed. They are usually called Technical Specifications and define the engineering requirements in great details. The writers are usually experts in that field and will incorporate all their previous experiences into the specifications. The result is a very detailed document, meant to be "water-tight". When consultants are engaged for the writing job, the result is usually an even more detailed specification.

There are several problems with these detailed specifications. Firstly, it takes a long time and great efforts to produce them. In view of the current management trends of "fat-cutting" and "process re-engineering", this long writing time may not be always affordable. Secondly, writing in such great details involves unavoidably some design assumptions that may favour a particular vendor. Clearly this is not desirable for a fair and open tender. Finally, a very detailed specification still cannot guarantee that the final product will meet the company's business needs. In fact, the more complicate the specification is, the easier for mis-interpretation by the supplier, either intentionally or unintentionally.

In view of these limitations, procurement consultants suggested much simpler specifications should be used. A company should use a Performance Specification or a Functional Specification to define the business requirements and leave the detailed designs and implementations to the suppliers, who are the real subject experts. This arrangement will encourage suppliers to provide innovative solutions to the company's needs. After all, the company users are normally just experts in using the product or service but not experts in designing a solution. Use of Detailed Specifications should be limited to cases where the specification writer is a true design expert but the supplier is not.

The use of simpler specifications is not without its own issues. My experience is that many suppliers are not ready for this. They are confused when they receive a "thin" specification and are not too sure how to proceed for making a tender offer. Evaluating offers from suppliers with very different designs is also more difficult as apples have to be compared to oranges.

Is simple specification the future direction? My view is that we are probably on one side of a pendulum swing starting to move in another direction. God knows when we will swing back.

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