OCDS Planning Stage

Before a public authority issues a tender notice, significant decisions have already been made: a budget has been allocated, a need has been identified, and a procurement approach has been chosen. The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) captures this pre-tender activity in the planning stage, making it visible as structured data rather than buried in internal documents.

What is the OCDS Planning Stage?

The planning stage is the first of five lifecycle stages in OCDS, preceding the tender stage. A planning release is published by a contracting authority to document:

• Budget information: the budget source, the budget amount, and the financial period to which it relates.
• Rationale: a plain-language description of why the procurement is needed.
• Procurement strategy: the intended procedure type (open, restricted, negotiated) and any relevant market engagement activities.
• Milestones: anticipated tender publication date, award date, and contract start.
• Documents: any pre-procurement documents such as preliminary market consultations or needs assessments.

Not all publishers issue planning releases. In many European jurisdictions, the legal obligation is to publish from the tender stage onward (the contract notice under Directive 2014/24/EU or equivalent). Planning data is published voluntarily or as part of a national open data initiative. Ukraine, which has adopted OCDS through its Prozorro platform, is one of the most comprehensive planning-stage publishers in Europe.

Why the OCDS planning stage matters for bidders

Planning data is the earliest possible signal that a contract is coming to market. When a buyer publishes planning releases, suppliers can identify opportunities months before the formal tender notice appears. This lead time is valuable: it allows a bidder to conduct early market engagement, build relationships with the buying team, prepare standard documentation, and plan resourcing.

Planning releases also reveal budget ranges. Even a rough budget figure helps suppliers decide whether a contract is commercially viable and worth pursuing. Comparing planned budget to eventual award value (visible in the award stage) across a buyer's history reveals whether estimates are realistic, which informs bid pricing decisions.

Monitoring planning data for a specific buyer category allows suppliers to build a forward pipeline of opportunities that would be invisible if they relied only on published tender notices.

Example

A Swedish county council publishes a planning release in January for a medical equipment procurement. The release states a budget of SEK 15 million, an anticipated tender publication date of April, and a preferred open procedure. An equipment supplier monitoring Swedish healthcare procurement sees the planning release, confirms the budget is within their commercial range, initiates a pre-market dialogue with the council in February, and is well-prepared when the formal tender notice appears in April.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a planning release legally required in the EU?

No. EU procurement directives (including Directive 2014/24/EU) do not require publication of planning data in a structured OCDS format. Some authorities publish prior information notices (PINs) as an early market signal, but a PIN is not the same as an OCDS planning release. OCDS planning releases are published as part of voluntary transparency commitments or national open data policies.

How reliable is budget information in planning releases?

Reliability varies by publisher. Some authorities publish firm budgets drawn from approved financial plans; others publish indicative estimates that may change significantly. Comparing planned versus awarded values in OCDS records for the same publisher over time gives a practical sense of how accurate their planning figures tend to be.

What is the difference between a planning release and a Prior Information Notice?

A Prior Information Notice (PIN) is a legal notice published under EU procurement directives to signal upcoming opportunities or to reduce the minimum tender period. An OCDS planning release is a structured data object that may contain the same information but is designed for machine readability and systematic analysis rather than legal publication.