Deliverable: Request for Response (RFR) Published

My most recent project has been the writing of an RFR for a Massachusetts state agency, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs.  It's part of a package software selection process -- the EOEA is looking for a portal to help perform case management and services provision for elders.

The RFR for the Senior Information Management System (SIMS) was published to the state's procurement website on Friday.

I performed an analyst role:  interviewing, drafting and wrangling business requirements, defining the vendor response and selection process relative to state regs, writing and rewriting to ensure the document's clarity.

It's a pretty good effort, if I do say so.

If you'd like to view the RFR document and the Requirements matrix, you can find the documents this way (note: Comm-PASS, the state procurement website, is a user experience train wreck):

1. Follow the Comm-PASS: Search for a Solicitation link
2. Use search keywords: SIMS portal
3. On the first "results" page, click the link that tells you there are matching search results.
4. On the Second "results" page, select the View icon (eyeglasses with no plain text description, of course) for the matching record.
5. You'll see the main page for solicitation RFR-ELD-2005-03, with Summary and other metadata.
6. Select the "Specifications" tab to show links to the RFR and Requirements matrix.

Why do you need two results pages for a simple query? Why can't application designers give simple URLs to enable deeplinking to important content? These are small things technically, but so important to users. Arg, don't get me started.