Technology Vendor Selection

Definition

Technology Vendor Selection

the architecting task during which potential vendor organizations and their products are evaluated and selected

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, technology vendor selection is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Task
• Subclasses: None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of the technology vendor selection task are to:

• Identify the appropriate organizations for partnering with the development or customer organization based on an evaluation of their products and business.
• Select appropriate partner organizations.

Preconditions

Technology vendor selection can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase has begun.
• The technology strategy team has been adequately:
  • Staffed.
  • Trained in technology partner selection.
• The technology analysis task has begun.

Completion Criteria

Technology vendor selection is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• Vendor organizations have been selected and notified.
• Vendor contracts have been signed.

Steps

Technology vendor selection typically involves the following teams performing the following steps in an interative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Technology Strategy Team:
  • Identify potentially relevant vendor organizations based on the strategic technologies that were identified and selected during the technology analysis task.
  • Evaluate these organizations' technologies.
  • Evaluate these organizations' businesses.
  • Prioritize these organization(s).
  • Select partner organization(s).
  • Negotiate and sign partnership contract(s).

Techniques

Technology vendor selection can typically be performed using the following techniques:

• Interviews.
• Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions
• Product evaluations.
• Technology checklists.

Work Products

Technology vendor selection typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products:

• Technology Strategy

Guidelines

• This task is primarily useful for business [re]engineering endeavors, but it may also be useful on application development endeavors in which new technologies are being used.