Establish and maintain guidelines to determine which issues are subject to a formal evaluation process.
Not every decision is significant enough to require a formal evaluation process. The choice between the trivial and the truly important is unclear without explicit guidance. Whether a decision is significant or not is dependent on
the project and circumstances and is determined by established guidelines.
Typical guidelines for determining when to require a formal evaluation process include the following:
· When the decision will have a significant adverse effect on cost, quality, resources, or schedule
· When legal or supplier agreement issues must be resolved
· When challenging or competing quality attribute requirements could significantly affect the success of the acquisition strategy or the acquirer project
· When a decision is directly related to issues that have medium-to-high-impact risk
· When a decision is related to changing work products under configuration management
· When a decision would cause schedule delays over a certain percentage or amount of time
· When a decision affects the ability of the project to achieve its objectives
· When the costs of the formal evaluation process are reasonable when compared to the decision’s impact
· When a legal obligation exists during a solicitation
Refer to the Risk Management process area for more information about evaluating, categorizing, and prioritizing risks.
Examples of activities for which you may use a formal evaluation process include the following:
· Making decisions to trade off cost, schedule, and performance requirements during an acquisition
· Selecting, terminating, or renewing suppliers
· Selecting training for project staff
· Selecting a testing environment to be used for product validation
· Determining the items to be selected for reuse in related projects
· Selecting an approach for ongoing support (e.g., disaster recovery, service levels)
Example Work Products
1. Guidelines for when to apply a formal evaluation process
Subpractices
1. Establish guidelines for when to use a formal evaluation process.
2. Incorporate the use of guidelines into the defined process as appropriate.
Refer to the Integrated Project Management process area for more information about establishing the project’s defined process.
174/656 - 0 sub articles
CMMI for Acquisition 1.3
4. 