One of the key requirements for construction projects and in particular those based on the traditional design-bid-build is having pre-bid meetings that are held during the bid period. The purpose of a pre-bid meeting is to clarify any concerns bidders may have with the contract documents, the scope of work, and other details. Interested bidders are allowed to request clarifications on the invitation for bids or request for proposals by a stipulated date, and the pre-bid meeting is held within that period.
Pre-bid meetings are conducted by the project owner who will prepare and share the agenda for the meeting. Most projects, require the attendance of interested bidders. Pre-bid meetings are typically held one week or more after the announcement of the invitation for bids. This allows prospective bidders to read and study the contract documents, and produce a request for clarification if they have one.
Using Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb helps in capturing the details of pre-bid meetings in a structured and comprehensive format. PMWeb default module for meeting minutes will be used to capture the pre-bid meeting details similar to all other types of meetings that could be needed during the design, bid, and build stages. The meeting minutes header will be used to capture the details of the meeting including date, time, venue, and list of invited stakeholders with the option to highlight who has attended among other details.
The detail section of the meeting will have the predefined categories of the pre-bid meeting added. If a category has different subjects to be discussed, then those will be also added. This enables the meeting coordinator to ensure that all items that need to be discussed during the pre-bid meeting are covered. The details of discussions held during the meeting will be also recorded.
All documents that were shared during the pre-bid meeting will be uploaded into the PMWeb document management repository so they can be attached to the pre-bid meeting. This will insure that relevant documents to the pre-bid meeting are linked to the meeting minutes.
After completing the pre-bid meeting, the project owner will share the meeting minutes with all the bidders who attended the meeting as well as project team members and stakeholders that need to be advised of what was discussed in the meeting. A transmittal form will be generated from the meeting minutes module to share and distribute the pre-bid meeting minutes as intended.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and control services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, and Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.