RFP

Arquitetura No Comments

Prompt

Act as a Solution Architect with over 20 years of experience and with the mission of creating a questionnaire for a software development RFP. The questionnaire must have a minimum of 20 questions about allowed languages ​​(.Net or Java), SPA (Angular), Usability concepts, Reliability, Security, etc.

 

Gemini

This is a critical phase of the procurement process. After two decades in the trenches, I’ve learned that the quality of your RFP questions directly determines the quality of the vendor—and the eventual stability of your system.

The goal here isn’t just to see if they can code, but to understand how they build, protect, and maintain high-performance enterprise systems.

Below is a structured RFP questionnaire designed to vet vendors for a modern, scalable web application built on .NET or Java with an Angular frontend.

Technical RFP Questionnaire

 

Section 1: Core Backend & Architecture (.NET / Java)

 

These questions ensure the vendor adheres to modern standards rather than legacy patterns.

  1. Architecture Patterns: Do you utilize Clean Architecture or Hexagonal Architecture? Please describe how you enforce the separation of concerns between business logic and infrastructure.

  2. Version Alignment: We require .NET 8+ or Java 21 LTS. What is your migration strategy for staying current with Long-Term Support (LTS) releases?

  3. Concurrency & Threading: How do you handle high-concurrency scenarios? (e.g., Use of async/await in .NET or Virtual Threads in Java 21).

  4. API Design: How do you ensure backward compatibility and versioning for RESTful APIs? Provide an example of your approach to OpenAPI/Swagger documentation.

  5. Dependency Management: How do you manage and audit third-party libraries for vulnerabilities and “dependency hell”?

Section 2: Frontend & SPA (Angular)

 

Focusing on performance, maintainability, and modern Angular features.

  1. State Management: Under what conditions do you choose between NgRx/Signals versus simple Service-based state management?

  2. Performance Optimization: How do you handle Lazy Loading, Tree Shaking, and OnPush Change Detection to ensure a performant SPA?

  3. Component Architecture: Describe your strategy for creating a reusable, framework-agnostic Design System or Component Library within Angular.

  4. SSR vs. CSR: When would you recommend Angular Universal (SSR) over traditional Client-Side Rendering for this specific project?

Section 3: Usability & UX (UI Standards)

 

Software is useless if users can’t navigate it intuitively.

  1. Accessibility: How do you ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards?

  2. Responsive Design: Describe your “Mobile-First” vs. “Desktop-First” strategy and how you handle complex data tables on smaller screens.

  3. User Feedback Loops: What is your process for incorporating UI/UX feedback from stakeholders during the development sprint?

Section 4: Reliability & Scalability

 

Ensuring the system stays up and performs under load.

  1. Resiliency Patterns: How do you implement the Circuit Breaker and Retry patterns for external service integrations?

  2. Observability: What tools and strategies do you use for centralized logging, distributed tracing (e.g., OpenTelemetry), and real-time alerting?

  3. Scaling Strategy: How does your architecture support Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA) in a containerized environment?

  4. Database Integrity: How do you handle database migrations and ensure zero-downtime deployments?

Section 5: Security & Compliance

 

The “non-negotiables” for enterprise software.

  1. OWASP Mitigation: Provide specific examples of how you prevent SQL Injection, XSS, and Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR) in both the frontend and backend.

  2. Identity Management: Describe your experience integrating with OAuth2 / OpenID Connect (OIDC) and handling JWT (JSON Web Token) security (e.g., refresh token rotation).

  3. Data Encryption: What is your standard approach for encrypting sensitive data at rest (database) and in transit (TLS 1.3)?

  4. Security Scanning: Do you integrate SAST (Static Analysis) and DAST (Dynamic Analysis) tools into your CI/CD pipeline? Please specify the tools.

Critical Success Factors (Architect’s Tip)

 

Category What to Look For (Green Flags) Red Flags
Testing Automated Unit, Integration, and E2E (Cypress/Playwright) tests. “We perform manual QA before release.”
DevOps Fully automated CI/CD pipelines with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Bicep). Manual deployments or “FTP” uploads.
Documentation Living docs, ADRs (Architectural Decision Records), and clear READMEs. Documentation is “saved for the end of the project.”

Would you like me to create a scoring matrix to help you evaluate the responses you get from these vendors?

Perplexity

RFP Questionnaire for Software Development

As a Solution Architect with over 20 years of experience designing enterprise-scale systems, I’ve crafted this comprehensive questionnaire for your RFP. It targets key areas like programming languages, frontend frameworks, usability, reliability, security, and more to evaluate vendor capabilities rigorously. The 25 questions are grouped into logical sections for clarity, using a mix of yes/no, descriptive, and scaled responses to elicit detailed, actionable insights.

1. Technology Stack and Languages

  1. Allowed Programming Languages: Confirm if your team has expertise in .NET (C#) and/or Java ecosystems. Provide details on versions supported (e.g., .NET 8+, Java 17+), including framework preferences (e.g., Spring Boot for Java, ASP.NET Core for .NET).

  2. Frontend Framework: Describe your experience with Single Page Application (SPA) frameworks, specifically Angular (latest versions). Include examples of past projects and integration with backend APIs.

  3. Database and Data Layer: Specify supported databases (relational like PostgreSQL, NoSQL like MongoDB/Cassandra) and ORM tools (e.g., Entity Framework for .NET, Hibernate/JPA for Java). Detail migration strategies from legacy systems.

  4. Cloud Platform Compatibility: Outline experience with AWS (EC2, EBS, Lambda) or equivalent, focusing on cost-optimized deployments for Java/.NET apps.

2. Usability and User Experience

  1. Usability Standards: How do you incorporate WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA guidelines and Nielsen’s usability heuristics? Provide a recent project example with metrics (e.g., task completion rates).

  2. Responsive Design: Detail approaches for mobile-first, responsive SPAs using Angular, including testing on devices from 320px to 4K resolutions.

  3. Accessibility Features: Describe implementation of ARIA roles, screen reader compatibility, and keyboard navigation in Angular apps.

  4. User Testing Methodology: Explain your process for usability testing (e.g., A/B testing, heatmaps via tools like Hotjar), including participant recruitment and success criteria.

3. Reliability and Performance

  1. Availability SLAs: What uptime guarantees (e.g., 99.99%) do you offer? Describe monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, New Relic) and failover strategies.

  2. Scalability Approach: How do you design for horizontal scaling in Java/.NET apps (e.g., microservices with Kubernetes)? Provide load testing results from a similar project.

  3. Error Handling and Resilience: Detail circuit breaker patterns (e.g., Resilience4j for Java, Polly for .NET) and retry mechanisms for distributed systems.

  4. Performance Optimization: Outline techniques for SPA performance (e.g., lazy loading in Angular, code splitting) and backend tuning (e.g., database indexing, caching with Redis).

4. Security

  1. Authentication/Authorization: Experience with OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect, JWTs, and role-based access (RBAC) in Java/.NET + Angular stacks?

  2. Data Protection: How do you ensure compliance with GDPR/LGPD (Brazilian data law), including encryption at rest/transit (e.g., AES-256, TLS 1.3)?

  3. Vulnerability Management: Describe your secure SDLC (e.g., OWASP top 10 mitigation, SAST/DAST tools like SonarQube, dependency scanning with OWASP Dependency-Check).

  4. API Security: Implementation of API gateways (e.g., Kong, AWS API Gateway) with rate limiting, WAF, and CORS policies for Angular frontends.

5. Development Practices and Delivery

  1. Methodology and Agile: Preferred agile framework (Scrum/Kanban)? Provide velocity metrics and tool stack (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps).

  2. CI/CD Pipeline: Detail your pipeline for .NET/Java/Angular (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins), including automated testing coverage (>80%?).

  3. Testing Strategy: Coverage for unit, integration, E2E tests (e.g., Jest/Cypress for Angular, JUnit/xUnit)? Include contract testing for APIs.

  4. Code Quality Gates: Enforcement of SonarQube or equivalent for code smells, security hotspots, and maintainability index.

6. Architecture, Deployment, and Support

  1. Architecture Modeling: Experience with C4 model for diagramming? Provide a sample system context/container diagram for a similar SPA project.

  2. Containerization and Orchestration: Proficiency with Docker and Kubernetes for deploying Java/.NET microservices?

  3. Monitoring and Observability: Tools for logs (ELK stack), metrics (Grafana), and tracing (Jaeger)? Define alerting thresholds.

  4. Deployment and Rollback: Zero-downtime deployment strategies (e.g., blue-green) and rollback success rates from past projects.

  5. Post-Deployment Support: Outline maintenance SLAs, including incident response times (e.g., P1 <15 min) and knowledge transfer processes.

Response Format Instructions for Vendors: For each question, provide: (a) Yes/No where applicable, (b) Detailed explanation with evidence (e.g., project links, metrics), (c) Team expertise summary (roles/years), and (d) Any assumptions or exclusions.

This questionnaire ensures vendors demonstrate alignment with your priorities like Java/.NET, Angular SPAs, and high-performance needs (e.g., NoSQL, AWS cost optimization). It promotes comparable bids while uncovering risks early.

 

Copilot

Here’s a comprehensive RFP questionnaire crafted from the perspective of a seasoned Solution Architect. It covers technology stack (.NET/Java), SPA frameworks (Angular), usability, reliability, and security. This set is designed to probe vendors’ capabilities, methodologies, and compliance with enterprise-grade standards.

📋 Software Development RFP Questionnaire

1. Technology Stack – Allowed Languages (.NET / Java)

  1. Which primary language/framework do you propose (.NET or Java) and why?
  2. How do you ensure long-term maintainability and scalability in the chosen language?
  3. What is your experience with cross-platform development using .NET Core or Java Spring Boot?
  4. How do you manage dependency versions and backward compatibility in your projects?
  5. Can you provide examples of large-scale enterprise applications you’ve delivered in .NET or Java?

2. SPA Framework – Angular

  1. What is your experience with Angular for building Single Page Applications (SPAs)?
  2. How do you structure Angular projects to ensure modularity and maintainability?
  3. What strategies do you use for optimizing Angular performance (lazy loading, AOT compilation, etc.)?
  4. How do you handle state management in Angular applications (e.g., NgRx, services)?
  5. How do you ensure Angular applications remain compatible with future framework versions?

3. Usability Concepts

  1. What usability standards or guidelines (e.g., WCAG, ISO 9241) do you follow?
  2. How do you incorporate user feedback into iterative design improvements?
  3. What methods do you use to conduct usability testing (A/B testing, heuristic evaluation, etc.)?
  4. How do you ensure accessibility for users with disabilities?
  5. Can you provide examples of projects where usability improvements significantly impacted adoption?

4. Reliability

  1. What strategies do you use to ensure high availability and fault tolerance?
  2. How do you design systems for scalability under peak loads?
  3. What monitoring and logging tools do you integrate to detect and resolve issues proactively?
  4. How do you approach disaster recovery and business continuity planning?
  5. Can you share your SLA commitments for uptime and response times?

5. Security

  1. What secure coding practices do you enforce across your development teams?
  2. How do you handle authentication and authorization (e.g., OAuth2, JWT, SAML)?
  3. What measures do you take to protect against common vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10)?
  4. How do you ensure compliance with data protection regulations (GDPR, LGPD, HIPAA)?
  5. What is your approach to penetration testing and vulnerability assessments?

✅ That gives you 25 targeted questions, ensuring vendors provide detailed, verifiable answers across all critical dimensions: technology, usability, reliability, and security.

Would you like me to also add scoring criteria (e.g., weightage per section, mandatory vs optional requirements) so this questionnaire can be directly used in vendor evaluation?

Perfect — let’s add a scoring framework so your questionnaire becomes a structured evaluation tool. This way, vendors’ answers can be compared objectively and weighted according to your priorities.

🏗️ RFP Questionnaire Scoring Criteria

📊 Section Weighting

Category Weight (%) Rationale
Technology Stack (.NET / Java) 20% Core platform choice impacts maintainability & scalability
SPA Framework (Angular) 15% Ensures modern, performant front-end
Usability Concepts 15% Drives adoption, accessibility, and user satisfaction
Reliability 20% Critical for uptime, resilience, and business continuity
Security 30% Highest priority: compliance, data protection, and trust

✅ Question-Level Scoring

Each question can be scored on a 0–5 scale:

  • 0 = No answer / Not applicable
  • 1 = Very weak / lacks detail
  • 2 = Basic / partial compliance
  • 3 = Adequate / meets minimum requirements
  • 4 = Strong / exceeds requirements with examples
  • 5 = Excellent / comprehensive, with proven track record and references

📝 Example Scoring Application

  • Q1 (Technology Stack):
    Vendor proposes Java Spring Boot with clear rationale, proven scalability, and enterprise references.
    → Score: 5
  • Q14 (Usability – Accessibility):
    Vendor mentions WCAG but provides no concrete testing methodology.
    → Score: 2
  • Q23 (Security – OWASP Top 10):
    Vendor demonstrates automated scanning, secure coding practices, and annual penetration testing.
    → Score: 5

📐 Final Evaluation Formula

[ \text{Final Score} = \sum (\text{Section Score} \times \text{Weight}) ]

  • Each section’s average score (0–5) is multiplied by its weight.
  • The weighted scores are summed to produce a final vendor score (0–5).
  • Vendors can then be ranked or thresholded (e.g., minimum 3.5/5 required).

🚦 Decision Thresholds

  • 4.0 – 5.0: Strong candidate, exceeds expectations.
  • 3.0 – 3.9: Acceptable, meets requirements but with gaps.
  • < 3.0: Weak, does not meet minimum standards.

This framework ensures objective, transparent evaluation while emphasizing security and reliability as top priorities.

Would you like me to also design a scoring sheet template (Excel-style table with auto-calculated weights) so evaluators can plug in scores directly during vendor reviews?

 

ChatGPT

Below is a structured RFP questionnaire crafted from the perspective of a Solution Architect with 20+ years of experience, focused on enterprise-grade software development.
The questions are designed to differentiate mature vendors from average ones, covering technology stack, architecture, usability, reliability, security, delivery, and governance.

Software Development RFP – Technical & Architectural Questionnaire

1. Technology Stack & Standards

  1. Backend Languages
    • Which backend platform do you propose as the primary stack: .NET or Java?
    • Justify your choice considering scalability, maintainability, and long-term support.
  2. Frameworks & Versions
    • Which frameworks (e.g., .NET 8+, Spring Boot 3+) and versions will be used?
    • How do you manage framework upgrades over time?
  3. Coding Standards
    • What coding standards and best practices are enforced (e.g., SOLID, Clean Architecture, OWASP)?
    • How is compliance verified?
  4. Third-Party Libraries
    • How do you select, govern, and update third-party dependencies?

2. Frontend & SPA (Angular)

  1. SPA Architecture
    • Describe your proposed Angular SPA architecture (state management, module structure, lazy loading).
  2. Angular Versioning
    • Which Angular version will be used and why?
    • What is your strategy for keeping Angular up to date?
  3. Frontend Performance
    • How do you optimize SPA performance (bundle size, change detection, caching)?
  4. Cross-Browser & Device Support
    • How do you ensure compatibility across browsers and responsive behavior across devices?

3. Usability & User Experience (UX)

  1. UX Methodology
    • Which usability and UX principles guide your development (e.g., Nielsen heuristics, Design Thinking)?
  2. User-Centered Design
    • How are end users involved in usability validation (prototypes, usability testing)?
  3. Accessibility (A11y)
    • How do you ensure compliance with accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 or higher)?

4. Architecture & Scalability

  1. Architectural Style
    • Describe the proposed architecture (monolith, modular monolith, microservices, hybrid).
    • Explain the trade-offs.
  2. Scalability Strategy
    • How does the solution scale horizontally and vertically?
    • Which components are designed to scale independently?
  3. Cloud Readiness
    • Is the solution cloud-native?
    • Which cloud platforms are supported (AWS, Azure, GCP)?

5. Reliability & Resilience

  1. High Availability
    • How is high availability achieved at application and infrastructure levels?
  2. Fault Tolerance
    • How does the system handle failures (timeouts, retries, circuit breakers)?
  3. Disaster Recovery
    • What is the proposed backup, recovery, and RTO/RPO strategy?

6. Security

  1. Security by Design
    • How is security embedded into the development lifecycle (Secure SDLC)?
  2. Authentication & Authorization
    • Which standards are used (OAuth2, OpenID Connect, JWT)?
    • How are roles and permissions managed?
  3. Data Protection
    • How is sensitive data protected at rest and in transit?
  4. Vulnerability Management
    • How do you handle vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and remediation?

7. Quality Assurance & Testing

  1. Testing Strategy
    • Describe your testing approach (unit, integration, E2E, performance, security).
  2. Test Automation
    • What level of test automation is expected and which tools are used?

8. DevOps & Delivery

  1. CI/CD Pipeline
    • Describe your CI/CD pipeline and how it ensures quality and fast feedback.
  2. Infrastructure as Code
    • Do you use IaC (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation)?
    • How is infrastructure versioned and audited?

9. Maintainability & Support

  1. Code Maintainability
    • How do you ensure long-term maintainability and knowledge transfer?
  2. Monitoring & Observability
    • Which tools and metrics are used for logging, monitoring, and alerting?
  3. Support Model
    • What is your proposed support and SLA model post go-live?

10. Governance & Compliance

  1. Documentation
    • What documentation is delivered (architecture, APIs, deployment, operations)?
  2. Compliance & Auditing
    • How do you support compliance requirements (ISO 27001, SOC 2, LGPD/GDPR)?

Final Note from the Architect

This questionnaire is intentionally architecture-driven, not feature-driven.
Its goal is to reveal:

  • Technical maturity
  • Long-term sustainability
  • Risk awareness
  • Ability to deliver enterprise-grade software, not just code

If you want, I can:

  • 🔹 Adapt this questionnaire to public-sector RFPs
  • 🔹 Add scoring criteria and weight per section
  • 🔹 Tailor it specifically for .NET-first or Java-first strategies

 

DeepSeek

RFP Questionnaire: Enterprise Application Development
Prepared by: Senior Solution Architect (20+ years experience)
Objective: To evaluate vendor capabilities, technical approach, and alignment with our strategic requirements for the development of a secure, reliable, and user-centric enterprise application.

Introduction for Vendors

This questionnaire is designed to elicit detailed, substantive responses that demonstrate your team’s expertise, methodology, and commitment to quality. Please provide specific examples, references to past work, and clear justifications for your proposed approaches. Vague or marketing-oriented responses will be scored lower. We are seeking a true partnership with a vendor who can act as an extension of our team.

Section 1: Technical Architecture & Stack (Core Technologies)

  1. Technology Stack Justification: Our approved backend technologies are .NET (Core/6+) or Java (Spring Boot). Please specify your proposed stack and justify your choice with specific reasons related to long-term maintainability, performance, community support, and your team’s depth of expertise.

  2. Frontend Architecture: We require a Single Page Application (SPA) using Angular. Detail your proposed Angular version, architecture (e.g., modular structure, state management pattern NGRX/RxJS, lazy loading strategy), and how you will ensure it remains performant and testable as the application scales.

  3. API Design & Integration: Describe your standard approach for designing RESTful APIs (or GraphQL if proposed). Include topics like versioning strategies, authentication/authorization at the API level, request/response validation, documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger), and handling backward compatibility.

  4. Data Layer & Persistence: Outline your approach to database design, including schema management, indexing strategies, and choice of persistence technology (e.g., SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB). How do you handle data migrations, and what principles do you follow for performance and data integrity?

  5. Deployment & DevOps: Describe your standard CI/CD pipeline. What tools do you use for build, test, artifact management, and deployment? How do you manage infrastructure (IaC – Terraform, Bicep, etc.)? What is your target deployment environment (e.g., Docker containers on Kubernetes, PaaS services)?

Section 2: Usability & User Experience (UX)

  1. UX Process Integration: Walk us through your UX design process, from discovery to final UI implementation. How do you involve user research, prototyping, and usability testing in your development lifecycle? Provide an example.

  2. Accessibility Compliance: What is your team’s experience and process for ensuring the application meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards? How do you bake accessibility into development and testing, rather than treating it as a final check?

  3. Cross-Platform & Responsive Design: Describe your strategy for ensuring a consistent and optimal user experience across major desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) and various mobile screen sizes.

  4. Performance Perception: Beyond technical metrics, what techniques do you employ to improve the perceived performance for the end-user (e.g., skeleton screens, optimistic updates, intelligent pre-fetching)?

Section 3: Reliability, Resilience & Performance

  1. Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs): How do you elicit, document, and validate specific NFRs (e.g., 99.95% uptime, page load times < 2s, concurrent user support)? What metrics and monitoring will you put in place to prove these are met?

  2. Resilience & Fault Tolerance: Explain your strategies for building resilience. Cover topics like graceful degradation, retry policies with exponential backoff, circuit breakers, and how you handle dependent service failures.

  3. Disaster Recovery (DR) & Business Continuity: What is your proposed DR strategy? Define RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) for the application and detail the architectural and operational steps to achieve them.

  4. Performance Testing & Optimization: Describe your performance testing methodology. What tools do you use for load, stress, and endurance testing? How do you identify and remediate bottlenecks in the application stack?

Section 4: Security & Compliance

  1. Security Development Lifecycle (SDL): Detail how security is integrated into every phase of your SDLC (requirements, design, coding, testing, deployment). Mention specific practices like threat modeling, SAST/DAST tool usage, and secure code reviews.

  2. Data Protection & Privacy: How will you ensure the protection of sensitive data both at rest and in transit? Discuss encryption standards, key management, and data masking/anonymization strategies for non-production environments.

  3. Identity & Access Management (IAM): Describe your standard approach for authentication and authorization. How will you integrate with enterprise identity providers (e.g., Azure AD, Okta)? Detail your authorization model (RBAC, ABAC).

  4. Compliance & Audit: What is your experience with common compliance frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR)? How do you design applications to facilitate audit logging and ensure logs are immutable and comprehensive?

Section 5: Development Process & Team

  1. Agile/DevOps Methodology: Provide specifics on your agile process (e.g., Scrum, Kanban). What are your team’s definitions of “Ready” and “Done”? How do you ensure transparency (e.g., artifact management, sprint demos, burndown visibility)?

  2. Quality Assurance Strategy: Describe your testing pyramid (unit, integration, E2E). What are your targets for code coverage? How do you approach automated testing, and what is the role of manual QA? How is testing automated within the CI/CD pipeline?

  3. Team Structure & Knowledge Transfer: Provide profiles of key proposed roles (Lead Architect, DevOps Engineer, UX Lead, etc.). What is your plan for knowledge transfer throughout the project and at its conclusion to ensure our team can operate and extend the system independently?

  4. Technical Debt Management: How do you proactively identify, track, and prioritize technical debt? What percentage of sprint capacity is typically allocated to debt reduction and foundational work?

Section 6: Commercial & Project Governance

  1. Pricing Model & Clarity: Beyond the total cost, provide a detailed breakdown of your pricing model (e.g., fixed-price per milestone, time & materials with caps). What is explicitly included and excluded? How are change requests handled and priced?

  2. Risk Management: Identify the top three technical and project risks you foresee for a project like this. What are your specific mitigation strategies for each?

  3. Success Metrics & Governance: How will we jointly measure project health and success beyond being on time and budget? What are your proposed KPIs and governance meeting structures (e.g., technical design reviews, operational readiness reviews)?

Instructions for Submission: Please format your responses clearly, referencing the question number. Limit responses to a maximum of one page per question (where applicable). Attach relevant case studies, sample architecture diagrams, and resumes of key proposed personnel as appendices.

Disclaimer: This questionnaire is a foundational tool. Shortlisted vendors will participate in technical deep-dive sessions and may be asked to complete a proof-of-concept on a narrowly defined problem set.

Thank you for your detailed and thorough response.

 

Qwen

Certainly. As a seasoned Solution Architect with over two decades of experience designing and evaluating enterprise-grade software solutions, I’ve crafted a comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP) questionnaire tailored to assess a vendor’s capability to deliver a modern, secure, scalable, and user-friendly application. This questionnaire aligns with best practices in software engineering, enterprise architecture, and compliance frameworks, and explicitly focuses on your technology constraints (.NET or Java backends, Angular for SPAs) while covering usability, reliability, security, and more.

Software Development RFP: Technical and Functional Capability Assessment Questionnaire
(Minimum 20 Questions)

I. Technology Stack & Architecture

  1. Backend Language & Framework: Do you propose a .NET-based (specify version: e.g., .NET 6/8) or Java-based (specify version and framework: e.g., Spring Boot 3) backend? Justify your choice based on project requirements, team expertise, and long-term maintainability.
  2. Frontend Framework: Confirm your commitment to developing a Single Page Application (SPA) using Angular. Specify the Angular version you intend to use and your strategy for staying current with Angular LTS releases.
  3. API Design: Describe your approach to designing RESTful APIs (or GraphQL, if applicable). Include details on versioning strategy, documentation (e.g., OpenAPI/Swagger), and contract-first development.
  4. Microservices vs Monolith: Will the solution be architected as a monolith, microservices, or modular monolith? Explain how your choice supports scalability, deployment agility, and team autonomy.
  5. Cloud & Deployment: Which cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP) do you support? Detail your CI/CD pipeline strategy, including tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and deployment models (e.g., blue/green, canary).

II. Usability & User Experience (UX)

  1. UX Design Process: Outline your user-centered design process, including stakeholder interviews, user personas, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing.
  2. Accessibility Compliance: How will your Angular SPA comply with WCAG 2.1 AA (or higher) standards? Provide examples of past implementations.
  3. Responsive & Adaptive Design: Describe your approach to ensuring the application is fully responsive across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
  4. Internationalization (i18n): If multi-language support is required, how will you implement i18n in Angular and localize server-side resources (in .NET/Java)?

III. Reliability, Performance & Observability

  1. Scalability Strategy: How will the application scale under load (horizontal vs. vertical)? Include database read/write scaling plans.
  2. Performance SLAs: What performance benchmarks (e.g., <2s page load, <500ms API response) do you guarantee, and how will you measure them?
  3. Error Handling & Resilience: Detail your strategies for fault tolerance (e.g., retry logic, circuit breakers) and graceful degradation in both frontend and backend.
  4. Monitoring & Logging: Which observability tools will you implement (e.g., Application Insights, Prometheus/Grafana, ELK stack)? How will alerts be configured and managed?

IV. Security

  1. Authentication & Authorization: Describe your identity management approach (e.g., OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect). Will you integrate with our existing identity provider (e.g., Azure AD, Okta)?
  2. Data Protection: How will you ensure data is encrypted at rest and in transit? Specify TLS version requirements and key management practices.
  3. Secure Coding & Testing: What secure development lifecycle (SDL) practices do you follow? Include SAST/DAST tools (e.g., SonarQube, OWASP ZAP), penetration testing frequency, and OWASP Top 10 mitigation strategies.
  4. Compliance: Can you demonstrate compliance with relevant standards (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA)? Provide audit reports or certifications if available.

V. Maintainability & Support

  1. Code Quality & Documentation: How do you ensure code quality (e.g., code reviews, automated testing coverage >80%)? What technical and end-user documentation will be delivered?
  2. Disaster Recovery & Backup: Describe your backup strategy, RPO (Recovery Point Objective), and RTO (Recovery Time Objective).
  3. Post-Production Support: What support model do you offer post-go-live (e.g., SLA-based 24/7 support, bug-fix turnaround time, feature enhancement process)?

Instructions for Bidders:

  • Answer each question thoroughly with specific methodologies, tools, and past examples.
  • Where applicable, reference relevant case studies or client testimonials.
  • Highlight any assumptions made in your responses.

This questionnaire ensures that vendors are evaluated not only on technical alignment with your stack (.NET/Java + Angular) but also on their maturity in delivering secure, reliable, and user-centric enterprise software—a hallmark of robust solution architecture.

 

Perplexity Pro

Software Development RFP Questionnaire

As a Solution Architect with over 20 years of experience designing enterprise-scale systems, I’ve crafted this comprehensive questionnaire for your RFP. It includes 35 targeted questions across key technical domains: programming languages (.NET vs. Java), frontend (Angular SPA), usability, reliability, security, SSO, clean code, SOLID principles, microservices, and related areas like architecture, DevOps, testing, and scalability. Questions are grouped by category for clarity, with response formats specified (e.g., yes/no, describe, provide evidence) to ensure comparable vendor proposals. Vendors should reference case studies, code samples, or metrics where requested.[1][2][3]

1. Programming Languages and Tech Stack (Questions 1-6)

  1. Do you support .NET (specify versions, e.g., .NET 8+) as the primary backend language? If not, explain your Java (e.g., Java 21+) expertise and migration strategy from legacy systems. Provide evidence from recent projects.
  2. Confirm your experience with Java Spring Boot or .NET Core/ASP.NET for RESTful APIs. Which do you recommend for high-throughput enterprise apps, and why? Yes/No + Justification.
  3. Describe your proficiency in integrating .NET or Java with cloud-native services (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions). List 2-3 examples with outcomes.
  4. Will you use Java for backend microservices or .NET? Detail handling of polyglot stacks if both are required. Yes/No per language.
  5. Provide your guidelines for selecting .NET vs. Java based on performance benchmarks (e.g., TechEmpower). Share recent benchmark data.
  6. Do you have certified experts in .NET (MCSD) or Java (Oracle Certified)? List team certifications and years of experience.

2. Frontend and SPA (Angular) (Questions 7-10)

  1. Confirm Angular (v17+) as the SPA framework. Describe your Nx workspace or Angular CLI usage for monorepo management. Yes/No + Sample repo link.
  2. How do you ensure Angular SPA performance (e.g., lazy loading, OnPush change detection, Ivy renderer)? Metrics from a similar project (e.g., Lighthouse scores).
  3. Detail Angular state management with NgRx or Signals. How do you handle offline-first capabilities? Provide code snippet example.
  4. Integrate Angular with backend APIs via .NET or Java. Describe error handling and real-time updates (e.g., SignalR/WebSockets). Architecture diagram.

3. Usability and UX Principles (Questions 11-13)

  1. Apply usability concepts like Nielsen’s heuristics and WCAG 2.2 AA compliance in Angular SPAs. List tools (e.g., Axe, Lighthouse) and audit process.
  2. How do you conduct user testing for intuitive navigation and accessibility in enterprise apps? Describe methodology with metrics (e.g., SUS scores >80).
  3. Ensure responsive design across devices using Angular Material or PrimeNG. Share A/B testing results from past projects.

4. Reliability and Scalability (Questions 14-17)

  1. Implement reliability patterns (e.g., circuit breakers with Resilience4j/Polly, retries). Target 99.99% uptime. SLA examples.
  2. Design for horizontal scaling in microservices with Kubernetes or Azure AKS. Describe auto-scaling configs.
  3. Use health checks, graceful degradation, and chaos engineering (e.g., Gremlin). Evidence of zero-downtime deployments.
  4. Handle data consistency in distributed .NET/Java systems (e.g., Saga pattern). Case study with failure scenarios.

5. Security and SSO (Questions 18-22)

  1. Embed security (e.g., OWASP Top 10 mitigation, SAST/DAST with SonarQube). Scan results from recent project.
  2. Implement SSO with OAuth 2.1/OpenID Connect (e.g., Keycloak, Auth0) integrated with Angular and backend. Protocol flow diagram.
  3. Secure microservices with mTLS, JWT validation, and zero-trust (e.g., Istio). Compliance (GDPR, SOC 2)?
  4. Protect against common SPA vulnerabilities (e.g., XSS in Angular, CSRF). Tools and policies.
  5. Detail secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp Vault, Azure Key Vault) and RBAC/IAM. Audit trail example.

6. Clean Code and SOLID Principles (Questions 23-26)

  1. Enforce clean code practices (e.g., single responsibility, DRY) in .NET/Java/Angular. Code review checklist.
  2. Apply SOLID principles: Provide examples of Dependency Inversion and Open-Closed in microservices. Code snippets.
  3. Achieve >80% code coverage with unit/integration tests (xUnit/JUnit, Jasmine). CI/CD pipeline integration.
  4. Use static analysis (e.g., ReSharper, SpotBugs) for clean code adherence. Metrics (e.g., cyclomatic complexity <10).

7. Microservices Architecture (Questions 27-30)

  1. Architect as microservices with DDD (Domain-Driven Design) and CQRS/ES. Bounded contexts diagram.
  2. Implement API Gateway (e.g., Ocelot/Kong) and service mesh for .NET/Java. Traffic management details.
  3. Handle inter-service communication (gRPC, Kafka for async). Event sourcing example.
  4. Deploy with GitOps (ArgoCD) and blue-green strategies. Monitoring with Prometheus/Grafana.

8. DevOps, Testing, and Support (Questions 31-35)

  1. Use CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins) for .NET/Java/Angular. Pipeline as code example.
  2. QA strategy: BDD (Cucumber), E2E (Playwright/Cypress), performance (JMeter). Defect escape rate <1%.
  3. Post-launch: Monitoring (ELK stack), support SLAs (P1<1hr), and observability. SRE practices.
  4. Team structure: DevOps engineers, Angular specialists, .NET/Java architects. Resumes + utilization rates.
  5. Risks/mitigations for scope creep, tech debt in microservices/SSO. Project success metrics (e.g., on-time delivery >95%).[1][3]

Vendors must submit responses in a structured PDF with sections matching these categories, including evidence (diagrams, repos, metrics). Evaluation prioritizes depth in Angular, security/SSO, SOLID/clean code, and microservices alignment.[2]

 

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Comprehensive Software Development RFP Questionnaire

As a Solution Architect with over 20 years of experience in enterprise software development, I’ve designed this detailed questionnaire to evaluate vendors for your software development project. This questionnaire contains 40 strategic questions organized into critical technical domains to ensure you select a partner capable of delivering a robust, scalable, and maintainable solution.

Section 1: Technology Stack & Programming Languages (Questions 1-7)

  1. Which backend technology do you propose for this project: .NET (specify version) or Java (specify version)? Provide a detailed justification for your recommendation based on our requirements.

  2. Describe your team’s expertise level in both .NET and Java. Include certifications, years of experience, and number of certified developers available for this project.

  3. If proposing .NET, which framework will you use (.NET 6/7/8, ASP.NET Core)? Detail your experience with the latest LTS versions and migration strategies from legacy frameworks.

  4. If proposing Java, which frameworks and libraries will you leverage (Spring Boot, Jakarta EE, Quarkus)? Explain version selection and long-term support considerations.

  5. How do you handle dependency management and package versioning in your proposed technology stack (NuGet for .NET, Maven/Gradle for Java)?

  6. Describe your approach to polyglot programming if multiple languages are required. How do you ensure consistency across different technology stacks?

  7. Provide evidence of at least 3 recent enterprise projects (last 2 years) using your proposed technology stack, including project scale, team size, and outcomes.

Section 2: Single Page Application (SPA) with Angular (Questions 8-12)

  1. Confirm your proficiency with Angular (specify minimum version 15+). Describe your experience with the latest Angular features (Standalone Components, Signals, Control Flow syntax).

  2. Detail your Angular project structure and architecture patterns (feature modules, lazy loading, shared modules). Provide a sample project structure diagram.

  3. How do you implement state management in Angular applications? Compare your approach using NgRx, Akita, or Angular Services with RxJS.

  4. Describe your strategy for optimizing Angular SPA performance, including bundle size optimization, tree shaking, AOT compilation, and runtime performance monitoring.

  5. How do you ensure seamless integration between the Angular frontend and the backend API (.NET or Java)? Detail your approach to API contracts, versioning, and documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger).

Section 3: Usability & User Experience (Questions 13-16)

  1. Describe your methodology for incorporating usability principles (Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics, ISO 9241-11) into the software development lifecycle.

  2. How do you ensure WCAG 2.1/2.2 Level AA compliance for accessibility? List specific tools, testing procedures, and team expertise in accessible design.

  3. Detail your approach to responsive design and cross-browser compatibility. Which devices, browsers, and screen sizes will you support?

  4. Describe your user research and usability testing process. How do you incorporate user feedback into iterative design improvements? Provide metrics you track (SUS scores, task completion rates, etc.).

Section 4: Reliability & Performance (Questions 17-20)

  1. What Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can you commit to for system availability, uptime, and performance? Provide evidence from previous projects.

  2. Describe your implementation of reliability patterns including circuit breakers, bulkheads, retries with exponential backoff, and timeout strategies. Which libraries do you use (Polly for .NET, Resilience4j for Java)?

  3. How do you design for fault tolerance and graceful degradation? Provide examples of handling partial system failures without complete service disruption.

  4. Detail your approach to performance testing, load testing, and stress testing. Which tools do you use (JMeter, Gatling, k6), and what are your performance benchmarks?

Section 5: Security & Authentication (Questions 21-26)

  1. Describe your comprehensive security strategy addressing the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. Provide specific mitigation techniques for each vulnerability category.

  2. Detail your implementation of Single Sign-On (SSO) using modern protocols (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0). Which identity providers do you support (Azure AD, Okta, Auth0, Keycloak)?

  3. How do you secure APIs and microservices? Address authentication, authorization, API keys, JWT tokens, token refresh strategies, and token revocation.

  4. Describe your approach to data encryption at rest and in transit. Which encryption standards and algorithms do you implement (TLS 1.3, AES-256)?

  5. How do you implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) or Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)? Provide examples of fine-grained authorization strategies.

  6. Detail your security testing approach including SAST (Static Application Security Testing), DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing), penetration testing, and vulnerability scanning. Which tools do you use (SonarQube, Veracode, Checkmarx, OWASP ZAP)?

Section 6: Clean Code & Code Quality (Questions 27-30)

  1. Describe your team’s commitment to clean code principles as defined by Robert C. Martin. How do you enforce meaningful naming, small functions, single responsibility, and code readability?

  2. What code review processes and standards do you implement? Detail your peer review workflow, review checklists, and quality gates.

  3. Which static code analysis tools do you use for your proposed technology stack (ReSharper, SonarQube, ESLint, TSLint)? What are your quality thresholds (code coverage, complexity metrics, duplication)?

  4. How do you manage technical debt? Describe your approach to identifying, tracking, prioritizing, and resolving technical debt throughout the project lifecycle.

Section 7: SOLID Principles & Design Patterns (Questions 31-33)

  1. Provide concrete examples of how you apply each SOLID principle in your codebase:
  • Single Responsibility Principle (SRP)
  • Open/Closed Principle (OCP)
  • Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP)
  • Interface Segregation Principle (ISP)
  • Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)

  1. Describe your use of Dependency Injection (DI) and Inversion of Control (IoC) containers in your proposed technology stack (.NET Core DI, Spring Framework, etc.).

  2. Which design patterns do you commonly implement in enterprise applications (Repository, Factory, Strategy, Observer, Decorator, etc.)? Provide use cases for each.

Section 8: Microservices Architecture (Questions 34-40)

  1. Describe your microservices architecture approach including service decomposition strategy, bounded contexts (Domain-Driven Design), and service granularity principles.

  2. How do you handle inter-service communication? Compare synchronous (REST, gRPC) vs. asynchronous (message queues, event-driven) approaches and when to use each.

  3. Detail your API Gateway strategy and implementation (Ocelot, Kong, Azure API Management, AWS API Gateway). How do you handle routing, rate limiting, and API composition?

  4. Describe your approach to distributed data management. How do you handle database-per-service pattern, data consistency, and distributed transactions (Saga pattern, eventual consistency)?

  5. How do you implement service discovery, load balancing, and health checks in your microservices architecture (Consul, Eureka, Kubernetes services)?

  6. Detail your containerization and orchestration strategy. Describe your use of Docker, Kubernetes, or other container orchestration platforms. Include deployment patterns (blue-green, canary, rolling updates).

  7. How do you implement observability in microservices? Describe your approach to distributed tracing (Jaeger, Zipkin), centralized logging (ELK stack, Splunk), and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, Application Insights).

Submission Requirements

Vendors must provide:

  • Detailed written responses to all 40 questions
  • Supporting documentation: architecture diagrams, code samples, case studies
  • Evidence of expertise: certifications, project portfolios, client references
  • Team composition: roles, experience levels, availability
  • Timeline and methodology: project approach, milestones, deliverables

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Technical depth and accuracy (40%)
  • Relevant experience and proven track record (30%)
  • Team expertise and certifications (15%)
  • Methodology and best practices adherence (15%)

This questionnaire ensures comprehensive evaluation of vendors’ capabilities across all critical technical dimensions for enterprise software development.

 

ChatGPT-5.2 Thinking

Software Development RFP Questionnaire (Solution Architect Edition)

Use the questions below to drive comparable, evidence-based vendor responses. Ask vendors to answer each question with:

  • Response type: Yes/No, Narrative, Table, Diagram, or Evidence link
  • Evidence requested: architecture diagram, sample repo excerpt, runbook excerpt, anonymized metrics, etc.

Below are 45 questions across the areas you listed (.NET/Java, Angular SPA, usability, reliability, security/SSO, clean code/SOLID, microservices).

1) Vendor Capability & Delivery Approach

  1. Provide 3 relevant project references (similar scale/complexity). Include scope, stack (.NET/Java + Angular), duration, team size, and outcomes.
  2. What delivery model do you propose (agile/scrum, kanban, hybrid)? How do you manage backlog, scope changes, and acceptance?
  3. Describe your proposed team composition by role (Solution Architect, backend, Angular, QA, DevOps, security). Include allocation % and seniority.
  4. What is your approach to knowledge transfer and documentation to enable internal team takeover?
  5. How do you handle architecture governance (ADRs, design reviews, coding standards enforcement)?

2) Allowed Backend Languages: .NET or Java

  1. Confirm you can deliver the backend in either .NET or Java (as required). Which do you recommend for this project and why?
  2. Specify the exact versions you propose (e.g., .NET LTS version / Java LTS version) and rationale for long-term support.
  3. Which primary backend framework will you use (ASP.NET Core / Spring Boot / other)? Provide reasoning.
  4. How do you structure solutions for maintainability (layered architecture, hexagonal/clean architecture, modular monolith vs microservices)?
  5. How do you handle dependency management and vulnerability control (NuGet/Maven/Gradle), including SBOM generation?
  6. Describe your approach to API design: REST conventions, pagination, filtering, sorting, idempotency, and versioning.
  7. Do you support gRPC where beneficial? Describe when you’d choose REST vs gRPC.
  8. Provide a sample of your error handling standard (problem details format, error codes, correlation IDs).

3) SPA Frontend: Angular

  1. Confirm Angular is the SPA framework. Which Angular version do you target and how do you keep it up to date?
  2. Describe your Angular architecture approach (feature modules/standalone components, shared libraries, monorepo vs multirepo).
  3. How do you manage state (RxJS services, NgRx, signals-based patterns)? Provide decision criteria.
  4. How do you ensure frontend performance (lazy loading, bundle budgets, change detection strategy, caching)?
  5. Describe your frontend testing strategy (unit, component, E2E). Which tools (Jest/Karma, Cypress/Playwright)?
  6. How do you manage design systems and UI consistency (Angular Material, custom component library, Storybook)?
  7. How do you ensure secure handling of tokens in an SPA (storage strategy, XSS defenses, refresh token approach)?

4) Usability, UX, and Accessibility

  1. What usability principles do you apply (e.g., heuristics, task-oriented design)? Describe your UX process from discovery to validation.
  2. How do you ensure accessibility compliance (target level such as WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA)? What tools and audits do you run?
  3. Describe how you validate critical user journeys (task success rate, time-on-task, error rate, SUS or equivalent).
  4. How do you handle localization, date/number formats, and right-to-left support if required?
  5. What is your approach to responsive design and cross-browser/device support? Provide your support matrix.

5) Security (Application + Platform)

  1. Provide your secure SDLC approach (threat modeling, secure coding standards, security gates).
  2. How do you address OWASP Top 10 risks specifically for an Angular SPA + API backend?
  3. Which security testing will you perform (SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning)? Provide tools and when they run in CI/CD.
  4. How do you implement secrets management (Vault/Key Vault/Secrets Manager), rotation, and least privilege?
  5. Describe your approach to audit logging (what events, tamper resistance, retention, and privacy concerns).
  6. How do you handle PII/data protection (encryption at rest/in transit, key management, masking, retention, deletion)?

6) SSO, Identity, and Authorization

  1. Which SSO protocols do you support (OIDC, OAuth2, SAML2)? Which do you recommend and why?
  2. Which identity providers have you integrated with (Azure AD, Okta, Keycloak, Auth0, etc.)? Provide examples.
  3. Describe how roles/permissions are modeled (RBAC/ABAC). How is authorization enforced consistently (gateway, service, UI)?
  4. How do you handle session management for SPA (silent renew, token expiration, logout propagation, single logout if needed)?
  5. How do you implement MFA/step-up authentication requirements if requested?

7) Reliability, Availability, and Disaster Recovery

  1. What availability target can you commit to (e.g., 99.9/99.95/99.99) and what architecture is required to achieve it?
  2. Describe resilience patterns you implement (timeouts, retries with backoff, circuit breakers, bulkheads). Which libraries/tools?
  3. How do you implement graceful degradation and feature toggles during partial outages?
  4. Provide your approach to backups, restore testing, RPO/RTO targets, and disaster recovery runbooks.
  5. How do you conduct performance and load testing (tools, scenarios, success criteria)? Provide an example test report outline.

8) Microservices (or Service-Oriented) Architecture

  1. Do you propose microservices, modular monolith, or a hybrid? Provide criteria used to decide and trade-offs.
  2. If microservices: how do you define boundaries (DDD bounded contexts) and prevent chatty service designs?
  3. How do services communicate (sync vs async)? Describe use of messaging (Kafka/RabbitMQ/etc.), event design, and idempotency.
  4. How do you handle distributed data and consistency (database-per-service, sagas, outbox pattern, eventual consistency)?
  5. What is your approach to API gateway, rate limiting, throttling, and WAF integration?
  6. How do you implement service observability (logs, metrics, tracing) and correlate end-to-end requests?

9) Clean Code, SOLID, and Maintainability

  1. Provide your coding standards for backend and Angular (linting, formatting, naming, architecture rules).
  2. How do you enforce SOLID principles in practice? Provide 2 concrete examples from past work (design decision + outcome).
  3. What is your code review process (required reviewers, checklists, definition of done, PR size guidelines)?
  4. Which quality gates do you enforce (coverage %, duplication thresholds, complexity thresholds, “no critical issues”)?
  5. How do you manage and track technical debt (register, prioritization, “20% capacity”, refactoring policy)?

10) Testing Strategy (End-to-End Quality)

  1. Provide a test pyramid strategy across unit/integration/contract/E2E tests for both backend and Angular.
  2. How do you implement contract testing between SPA and APIs (OpenAPI validation, Pact, consumer-driven contracts)?
  3. How do you handle test data management and environment parity (mocking vs ephemeral environments)?

11) DevOps, CI/CD, and Environments

  1. Describe your CI/CD pipeline approach (build, test, scan, deploy). Provide a high-level pipeline diagram.
  2. Do you support IaC (Terraform/Bicep/CloudFormation)? How do you manage change control and drift detection?
  3. What deployment strategies do you use (blue/green, canary, rolling)? How do you do rollback and database migration rollback?
  4. How do you manage configuration per environment (feature flags, config separation, secure config)?

12) Operations, Support, and Handover

  1. What support model do you offer post-go-live (hours, SLAs, on-call)? Provide P1/P2 response and resolution targets.
  2. What monitoring/alerting standards will you implement (SLIs/SLOs, alert fatigue controls, runbooks)?
  3. What documentation will you deliver (architecture, ADRs, API docs, runbooks, onboarding guide)? Provide a table of contents.

If you tell me:

  • preferred cloud/on-prem target (Azure/AWS/GCP/on-prem),
  • any compliance requirements (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI, HIPAA, LGPD/GDPR),
  • expected scale (users, TPS, data size), …I can tailor these questions into a vendor response template + scoring matrix (so evaluation is consistent across proposals).