A junior analyst at a medium-sized IT consulting firm has been asked by her manager to draft a response to an RFP from a large company that is seeking IT consulting services in connection with a new accounting system.

As the analyst worked on the RFP, she noticed a specific question about her firm’s recent experience on this type of system. To the best of her knowledge, the firm has only worked on one other accounting project in the past three years. When the manager saw the analyst’s draft response, he was upset about the way she answered the question. “You don’t have to be quite that candid,” he said. “Even though we only had one formal project, we do have several people who worked on accounting systems before they came here.” “Yes,” the analyst replied, “But that isn’t what the question is asking.” As he left her office, the manager’s final comment was, “If we want that job, we’ll have to come up with a better answer.” Thinking about it, 

the analyst isn’t comfortable with anything but a straight answer. Is this an ethical question? 

What are her options?