A Project and Work Management Process Area at Maturity Level 2

The purpose of Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) is to manage the acquisition of products and services from suppliers.

The scope of this process area addresses the acquisition of products, services, and product and service components that can be delivered to the service's customer or included in a product or service system. This process area’s practices can also be used for other purposes that benefit the service (e.g., purchasing consumables).

This process area does not apply in all contexts in which commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are acquired but does apply in cases where there are modifications to COTS components, government off-the-shelf components, or freeware, that are of significant value to the work or that represent significant risk.

Throughout the process areas, where the terms “product” and “product component” are used, their intended meanings also encompass services, service systems, and their components.

The Supplier Agreement Management process area involves the following activities:

·         Determining the type of acquisition

·         Selecting suppliers

·         Establishing and maintaining agreements with suppliers

·         Executing supplier agreements

·         Accepting delivery of acquired products

·         Ensuring successful transition of acquired products

Typically, the products to be acquired are determined during the early stages of planning and development of the service system.

This process area does not directly address arrangements in which the supplier is integrated into the work group and uses the same processes and reports to the same management as the work group members. Typically, these situations are handled by other processes or functions (e.g., work management processes, processes or functions external to the work group) though some of the specific practices of this process area can be useful in managing the supplier agreement.

This process area typically is not implemented to address arrangements in which the work group’s customer is also a supplier. These situations are usually handled by either informal agreements with the customer or by specification of the customer furnished items in the overall agreement that the work group has with the customer. In the latter case, some of the specific practices of this process area can be useful in managing the agreement, although others may not, due to the fundamentally different relationship that exists with a customer as opposed to an ordinary supplier. See the CMMI-ACQ model for more information about other types of agreements.

Suppliers can take many forms depending on business needs, including in-house suppliers (i.e., suppliers that are in the same organization but are external to the work group), fabrication departments, suppliers of reuse libraries, and commercial suppliers. (See the definition of “supplier” in the glossary.)

A supplier agreement is established to manage the relationship between the organization and the supplier. A supplier agreement is any written agreement between the organization (representing the work group) and the supplier. This agreement can be a contract, license, service level agreement, or memorandum of agreement. The acquired product is delivered from the supplier according to the supplier agreement. (See the definition of “supplier agreement” in the glossary.)

Refer to the Requirements Management process area for more information about maintaining bidirectional traceability of requirements.

Refer to the Work Monitoring and Control process area for more information about monitoring the work against the plan and managing corrective action to closure.

Specific Goal and Practice Summary

SG 1 Establish Supplier Agreements

SP 1.1       Determine Acquisition Type

SP 1.2       Select Suppliers

SP 1.3       Establish Supplier Agreements

SG 2 Satisfy Supplier Agreements

SP 2.1       Execute the Supplier Agreement

SP 2.2       Accept the Acquired Product

SP 2.3       Ensure Transition of Products