procurement-vendor-method

# Procurement and vendor decision method Freeze the decision frame before comparing candidates: need, candidates, mandatory criteria, weighted preferences, budget and timing bounds, jurisdictions, evidence cutoff, disqualifiers, and approval owners. Apply the same criterion definition and evidence cutoff to every vendor. Separate observed fact, vendor assertion, analyst inference, and unknown. ## Parallel specialist work Run three independent reviews from the same operator scope: 1. Commercial comparison records normalized pricing, total-cost assumptions, capability fit, service levels, implementation dependencies, switching costs, and sensitivity to uncertain inputs. 2. Vendor diligence records corporate identity, ownership, references, operational resilience, security/privacy evidence, financial and legal signals, sanctions or concentration exposure, and evidence gaps. A vendor statement is not independent verification. 3. Approval governance maps mandatory checks, evidence owners, conflicts of interest, segregation of duties, exceptions, approvers, and the exact conditions required before commitment. The join reconciles identity and scope across all three outputs, explains every material score, and preserves dissent, uncertainty, missing evidence, and alternatives. A recommendation may be conditional, deferred, or no-award. Confidence follows evidence quality and coverage, not numerical precision. ## Authority boundary The output is decision support. Do not purchase, sign, approve spend, accept contract terms, contact a vendor, or claim that legal, security, finance, compliance, or executive approval occurred unless the corresponding authorized participant and evidence are present. High-impact gaps remain explicit approval blockers or conditions.