Establish and maintain formal agreements with the supplier.

A formal agreement is any legal agreement between the organization (representing the project) and the supplier. This agreement may be a contract, license, service level agreement, or memorandum of agreement.

The content of the agreement should specify the reviews, monitoring, evaluations, and acceptance tests to be performed, if such activities are appropriate to the acquisition or product being acquired.

Typical Work Products

1.    Statements of work

2.    Contracts

3.    Memoranda of agreement

4.    Licensing agreement

Subpractices

1.    Revise the requirements (e.g., product requirements and service level requirements) to be fulfilled by the supplier to reflect negotiations with the supplier when necessary.

Refer to the Requirements Development process area for more information about revising requirements.

Refer to the Requirements Management process area for more information about managing changes to requirements.

2.    Document what the project will provide to the supplier.

Include the following:

·   Project-furnished facilities

·   Documentation

·   Services

3.    Document the supplier agreement.

The supplier agreement should include a statement of work, a specification, terms and conditions, a list of deliverables, a schedule, a budget, and a defined acceptance process.

This subpractice typically includes the following:

·   Establishing the statement of work, specification, terms and conditions, list of deliverables, schedule, budget, and acceptance process

·   Identifying who from the project and supplier are responsible and authorized to make changes to the supplier agreement

·   Identifying how requirements changes and changes to the supplier agreement are to be determined, communicated, and addressed

·   Identifying standards and procedures that will be followed

·   Identifying critical dependencies between the project and the supplier

·   Identifying the type and depth of project oversight of the supplier, procedures, and evaluation criteria to be used in monitoring supplier performance including selection of processes to be monitored and work products to be evaluated

·   Identifying the types of reviews that will be conducted with the supplier

·   Identifying the supplier’s responsibilities for ongoing maintenance and support of the acquired products

·   Identifying warranty, ownership, and usage rights for the acquired products

·   Identifying acceptance criteria

In some cases, selection of COTS products may require a supplier agreement in addition to the agreements in the product's license.

4.    Periodically review the supplier agreement to ensure it accurately reflects the project's relationship with the supplier and current risks and market conditions.

5.    Ensure that all parties to the agreement understand and agree to all requirements before implementing the agreement or any changes.

6.    Revise the supplier agreement as necessary to reflect changes to the supplier's processes or work products.

7.    Revise the project's plans and commitments, including changes to the project's processes or work products, as necessary to reflect the supplier agreement.

Refer to the Project Monitoring and Control process area for more information about revising the project plan.