Website Development RFP With Acceptance Tests

Scope and Ownership (fill-in)

When to use: Define the site, the templates, the CMS, integrations, and who owns content, design approval and the code at the end.

What we are buying

Fill this in before you send anything out. Half the bad quotes you get back are answers to a question nobody asked clearly.

1. The site

• Company and what it sells: [one sentence]
• Current site: [URL] · Platform today: [CMS or custom]
• Why we are rebuilding: [the business reason, not the design reason]
• Launch date and what drives it: [date and why]

2. Pages and templates

Count templates, not pages. 400 product pages on one template is one template.

3. CMS and who edits

• CMS preference: [name one, or say "propose one and justify it"]
• Who edits after launch: [marketing / developers / nobody]
• What they must edit without a developer: [list the page parts]
• Number of editors and languages: [number] · [languages]

4. Integrations

Name the system and who owns the credentials. "CRM integration" is not a requirement, it is a category.

• [system, e.g. HubSpot] · [what must flow, both directions] · [who owns access]
• [system, e.g. payment provider] · [what must flow] · [who owns access]
• [system, e.g. ERP or booking] · [what must flow] · [who owns access]

5. Content and design ownership

• Who writes the copy: [us / supplier / split by template]
• Who supplies images: [us / supplier / stock budget]
• Design approval: [who signs off, and how many rounds are included]
• Brand assets provided: [logo, fonts, colours, guidelines: yes / no]
• Who owns the code and design files at the end: [us, in writing]

Acceptance Tests and Maintenance

When to use: Pass-or-fail SEO, conversion, speed and accessibility checks on the live site, plus warranty, response times and backups.

Acceptance tests

The part most RFPs leave out, and the reason launches drag. Each test is pass or fail on the live site, measured by a named person.

SEO acceptance

• Every migrated URL returns a single 301 to its mapped target, no chains. Sample size [number]: [pass / fail]
• Every template outputs a unique title and meta description from the CMS: [pass / fail]
• Canonical, hreflang and robots directives correct on [number] sample pages: [pass / fail]
• XML sitemap generated automatically and submitted: [pass / fail]
• Indexable page count within [percent] of the pre-launch baseline at day 14: [pass / fail]

Conversion acceptance

• Every form submits, validates and sends to [the system], tested on mobile and desktop: [pass / fail]
• Conversion tracking fires once per event, verified in [analytics tool]: [pass / fail]
• Primary CTA present and clickable above the fold on [number] key templates: [pass / fail]
• Checkout or booking completes end to end in [number] steps: [pass / fail]

Speed and accessibility

• Largest Contentful Paint under [target, e.g. 2.5s] on a mid-range phone, on [number] templates
• Cumulative Layout Shift under [target, e.g. 0.1]
• Keyboard navigation reaches every interactive element: [pass / fail]
• Contrast and labels meet [the standard you require, e.g. WCAG 2.2 AA]: [pass / fail]
• State the device and connection the targets are measured on. A target without a device is not a target.

Maintenance after launch

• Warranty period for defects: [e.g. 60 days, at no cost]
• Response time for a site-down issue: [hours]
• Who applies CMS and dependency updates: [supplier / us] · How often: [cadence]
• Hosting owned by: [us / supplier] · Backups: [frequency, retention, who tests a restore]

Must-have versus optional

Split the list before suppliers do it for you, and ask for the optional modules priced separately so you can cut without renegotiating.

10 Questions Every Supplier Answers

When to use: The same 10 questions in the same order, so 5 proposals can be compared without re-reading them.

What suppliers must answer

Ask for these in the same order, so you can compare 5 proposals without re-reading them all.

1. Which templates are in scope, and what is excluded? [their answer]
2. Which CMS, and why that one for our editors? [their answer]
3. Who writes content, and what happens if it is late? [their answer]
4. How do you handle the URL map and redirects? [their answer]
5. Which acceptance tests above do you accept as written, and which would you change? [their answer]
6. What is the price, and what is priced per module? [their answer]
7. What is the payment schedule, tied to which milestones? [their answer]
8. Who owns the code, design files and accounts at the end? [their answer]
9. What do you need from us, by when, for the date to hold? [their answer]
10. Name 2 sites you built that are still live and maintained a year later. [their answer]

How to score the answers

• A supplier who pushes back on a test with a reason is usually better than one who accepts all of them silently.
• Question 9 is the one that predicts the delay. A supplier who cannot name what they need from you has not run this before.
• Question 10 filters portfolios: anyone can show a launch, few can show a site still standing a year on.

Worked Example (filled brief)

When to use: One page of an invented but complete brief, showing the level of detail that gets comparable quotes.

Worked example: one page of a filled RFP

Example only. Company, numbers and targets are invented.

Why we are rebuilding: the current site cannot show stock by warehouse, so sales answer 30 emails a week that the site should answer.

Templates: 6. Home, service (4 pages), product (280, migrated), comparison (12, new), blog post (140, migrated), contact.

CMS: propose one and justify it. Marketing must edit hero copy, service bullets and blog posts without a developer. 3 editors, English only at launch, German in year 2.

Integrations: HubSpot (forms to deals, both directions, our RevOps owns access), ERP stock levels (read-only, hourly, IT owns access).

Content: we write service and comparison copy, supplier writes product descriptions from our spec sheets. 2 design rounds included. We own code and design files at the end.

Acceptance, abridged: single 301 per migrated URL on a 200-URL sample; unique titles from CMS on all 6 templates; LCP under 2.5s on a mid-range Android over 4G on 4 templates; forms deliver to HubSpot and fire 1 tracking event; keyboard reaches every interactive element.

Must-have vs optional: multilingual is optional and priced separately; customer portal is out of scope entirely; comparison templates are a must-have.

Maintenance: 60-day defect warranty, 4-hour response for site-down, supplier applies dependency updates monthly for 12 months, we own hosting.

Next step

Send this to 3 suppliers rather than 10, and score them on the same 10 questions. If you want a scoped estimate against your own filled brief, book a free consultation or see the website development services page.