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| 2025-12-03T15:54:22-05:00 | 2025-12-03 15:54:22 |
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Excluding Vs. Ignoring Project Requirements
There is a distinct difference between excluding and ignoring requirements.
If, before award, you communicate to the customer that your cost does not include respect for a requirement, and they understand the implications of the omission, you have excluded that requirement.
If your cost does not include respect for a requirement, but you have not (1) communicated the omission to the customer, and (2) made a reasonable effort to inform the customer of the implications of the requirement's omission, you are ignoring that requirement.
Excluding requirements is common practice. Ignoring requirements is unprofessional and irresponsible.
Sometimes requirements are ignored out of convenience. If an estimator is confident a requirement won't be enforced, they may ignore it to lower the estimate and save time in closeout.
More ethical estimators may have no desire to ignore requirements, but may nonetheless feel obligated to. If a contractor is confident their competitors will ignore a requirement, they may feel that the moral high road offers two losing options:
- include it and appear overpriced
- exclude it and appear to present coverage concerns
The winning strategy, as always, is open communication with the customer.
Important
Given the same project documents and your proposal, a reasonably experienced estimator employed by your customer should be able to replicate your takeoff with confidence.