Vendor Evaluation

Systematically evaluate and select vendors for infrastructure, SaaS, or services.

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Vendor Evaluation

Evaluate vendors using structured criteria including cost, SLA, support, roadmap alignment, and lock-in risk.

Instructions

  1. Functional Requirements: What features must vendor provide?
  2. Non-Functional: Performance, scalability, security, compliance
  3. Business Terms: Pricing, contracts, SLA, support response times
  4. Risk Assessment: Vendor stability, lock-in, exit strategy
  5. References: Talk to existing customers

Anti-Patterns

  • Vendor Selection Without SLA: Pick based on marketing. Guard: Require written SLAs with penalties.
  • Ignoring Lock-In: "We're committed to vendor." Guard: Evaluate exit cost before committing.

Further Reading

  • Vendor Evaluation Frameworks

sethdford/claude-skills/tree/main/architect/decision-making/skills/vendor-evaluation commit 7bde30f031

Frequently asked questions

npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/vendor-evaluation