Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development (SSAD) (CMMI-ACQ)

The Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development process area provides a set of practices that enables the acquirer to initialize and formalize a relationship with the supplier for the successful execution of the project. A supplier agreement is an agreement between the acquirer and supplier. This agreement can be a contract, license, or memorandum of agreement. The acquired product or service is delivered to the acquirer from the supplier according to the supplier agreement.

A supplier agreement created using these practices enables the acquirer to monitor and control supplier activities using other processes, such as the Project Monitoring and Control and Agreement Management processes.

The activities described in Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development apply equally to initial supplier agreements and to subsequent change orders, task orders, or amendments related to those agreements.

The acquirer is responsible for establishing and maintaining ground rules for communicating with the supplier, documenting decisions, and resolving conflict through the life of the agreement. The acquirer facilitates these activities with relevant stakeholders. Roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders during the interaction with suppliers are defined, coordinated, and adhered to.

The specific goals and specific practices of this process area build on each other. The Prepare for Solicitation and Supplier Agreement Development specific goal and its associated specific practices identify potential suppliers and develop and distribute the solicitation package, including evaluation criteria and the statement of work. The solicitation package is developed using work products from other processes (e.g., requirements and design constraints from Acquisition Requirements Development processes, supplier project and technical measures and objectives from Project Planning and Measurement and Analysis processes).

The Select Suppliers specific goal and its associated specific practices use work products from the preparation of the solicitation to solicit responses from potential suppliers, evaluate these responses, negotiate with potential suppliers, and select a supplier who can best deliver. Subsequently, the Establish Supplier Agreements specific goal and its associated specific practices are used to establish and maintain the supplier agreement. In turn, data provided by the supplier and documented in the supplier agreement (e.g., cost, schedule, risks) are used by Project Planning processes to update the project plan.

This process area contains many lists of examples to include in work products. As in other process areas, these lists are not all-inclusive and the acquirer should rely on other related lists when building work products. Considerations for supplier agreement content are described throughout the process areas.

Although this process area describes acquisition practices for a project, an acquirer would use the same practices in establishing a supplier agreement for multiple projects. The requirements included in the solicitation package and the supplier agreement would reflect a broader scope, and the evaluation and selection process would require an appropriate level of review before a selection is made.