RFP / RFI / RFQ
- RFI (Request for Information) — early-stage. "Tell us what you offer in this space."
- RFP (Request for Proposal) — "Here's our problem; propose a solution + price."
- RFQ (Request for Quotation) — late-stage, well-defined. "Here's exactly what we want; quote the price."
Statement of Work (SOW)
The contract that defines: what gets delivered, by when, for how much, with what acceptance criteria, and with what remedies if it doesn't. Vague SOWs produce expensive arguments. Specific SOWs protect both sides — the vendor knows when they've done the job; you know when to pay.
↳ the vendor-as-scapegoat trap
When a vendor underdelivers, it's tempting to blame them. You as the PM are still accountable to your sponsor. The questions to ask yourself: did we pick well? Was the SOW clear? Did we manage performance early enough to catch this? A bad vendor outcome is usually 50% the vendor and 50% the PM's management of them.
Performance management
- Define KPIs at contract time, not at issue time.
- Review against the KPIs on a published cadence — weekly for high-risk, monthly for steady-state.
- Surface concerns in writing, with specific contract-language references. Build a paper trail before you need it.
- If you have to terminate, do it cleanly — the way you exit the relationship is its own reputational signal.