Start with the tender, not a template
Before you write a word, read the conditions of tendering, the evaluation criteria and the returnable schedules. They tell you what the assessor will score, in what order, and within what page limit. Answer the questions in the order they're asked and use the tender's own headings, so an assessor can find each answer without hunting for it.
A methodology copied from the last job is easy to spot. The best ones read like they could only have been written for this project.
Show that you understand the job
Open with a short section on the project as you see it: the scope, the site and the constraints that will shape how it's built. That might be access, working hours, live traffic, existing services, neighbours, environmental limits or interfaces with other contractors. Then name the risks that matter most on this job. It shows the assessor you've read the documents and, ideally, walked the site.
Write it from the client's side. What are they worried about? Disruption to the public, a shutdown running over, damage to existing assets? If your method answers those worries, say so plainly.
A structure that works
Follow the tender's format if it gives one. If it doesn't, this order covers what most assessors look for:
- Project understanding: scope, site, constraints and key risks.
- Site establishment and access: compounds, access points, laydown and deliveries.
- Staging and sequence: the stages in order, and how the site changes at each one.
- Resources: key plant, crews, supervision, and who is responsible for what.
- Temporary works: shoring, propping, falsework or dewatering, where they apply.
- Traffic and access management: how you keep the public, residents and other users moving and safe.
- Environmental controls: dust, noise, vibration, erosion and sediment, and waste.
- Safety: the high-risk activities on this job and how you'll control them.
- Quality: inspection and test plans, hold points, and how work is signed off.
- Stakeholders and interfaces: the community, utility owners, the client's operations and other contractors.
- Program: how the method drives the program, and the key milestones.
- Risks and mitigations: the main risks and what you'll do about each one.
Be specific
Generic statements score poorly because every tenderer can write them. Compare "we will excavate the trench using suitable plant" with "a 20-tonne excavator works from the northern verge and loads trucks that leave by the eastern gate, so the southbound lane stays open". The second tells the assessor you've planned the job.
Name the actual plant, the real constraints and the reasons behind your choices. If you've chosen a less obvious method, explain what it saves: closures, time, risk or cost.
Example: one stage, written well
Here's how a single stage might read in a methodology for a sewer main replacement in a road reserve. The details are made up. The level of detail is the point.
Stage 2: sewer main replacement, northern section
Before excavation, we confirm the location of existing services from Before You Dig Australia plans and by non-destructive potholing at each crossing. The southbound lane is closed under the approved traffic management plan, and the northbound lane stays open. A 20-tonne excavator works from the closed lane and places trench shields as it goes, so nobody works in an unsupported trench. Spoil is loaded straight onto trucks and taken off site. Pipe is laid between manholes and tested before backfilling, with a hold point for the superintendent to inspect. Each night the trench is backfilled or plated and the lane reopens.
In a few sentences, the assessor learns how services are protected, how traffic keeps moving, how the trench is made safe, where the spoil goes, how quality is checked and what the public sees at night.
Show you've thought about the risks
A short risk table answers a question every assessor has: what could go wrong on this job, and what will you do about it? Keep it to the risks that are real for this project.
| Risk | How the method deals with it |
|---|---|
| Unknown or mislocated services | Before You Dig Australia plans, non-destructive potholing before excavation, and a stop-work procedure for anything unexpected |
| Wet weather | Allowance for wet days in the program, sediment controls in place before rain, and short lengths of open trench |
| Traffic delays and complaints | An approved traffic management plan, deliveries outside peak hours, and notice to residents before each stage |
| Long-lead materials arriving late | Orders placed on award, delivery dates confirmed with suppliers, and a sequence that lets other work continue if a delivery slips |
Keep it consistent
Assessors read your methodology next to your program, your price and your drawings. If the methodology says two crews and the program only works with three, or the staging drawings show a different order of work, it undermines everything else you've written. Check that the methodology, program, staging plans and pricing assumptions all describe the same job.
Use visuals
Staging diagrams, marked-up drawings, photos of similar work and program extracts all help an assessor follow the sequence faster than text alone. Give each one a caption that says what it shows. For complex staging, a short methodology animation can show the whole sequence in a couple of minutes, if the tender accepts video.
Common mistakes
- Boilerplate that could describe any project.
- Answering what you wanted to say instead of what the criteria ask.
- Going over the page limit, or burying the answers in long paragraphs.
- A methodology that doesn't match the program or the price.
- Promising extras that aren't priced or resourced.
- Leaving out the risks, as if the job has none.
- Drawings that are too small to read once they're in the PDF.
A final check before you submit
- Every criterion is answered, under the tender's headings.
- Page limits, fonts and file formats meet the tender's rules.
- The methodology, program, staging plans and price agree with each other.
- Plant, people and sequences are specific to this job.
- Every figure has a caption and is readable.
- Someone who didn't write it has read it from start to finish.