Sourceframe

Workflow pattern / Research

Develop a procurement research assistant

Support a purchase decision with documented, source-linked evidence against written requirements.

Advanced / Answer + citations / On demand

The problem

Procurement evidence is assembled ad hoc, and the reasoning behind a decision is hard to reconstruct months later.

Who it is for

Procurement and technical evaluation teams with documentation requirements.

Teams: Procurement / Security / Engineering

Inputs

  • Requirement list written as questions
  • Vendor set
  • Evidence standards
  • Decision record template

Conceptual process

  1. 01Formalise

    Turn each requirement into a question with an explicit evidence standard.

  2. 02Gather

    Locate public documentation addressing each requirement per vendor.

  3. 03Assess

    Record met, partially met, not established, or contradicted — with excerpts.

  4. 04Gap list

    Produce the list of questions to ask vendors directly.

  5. 05Record

    Emit a decision record that preserves evidence and reasoning.

Flow diagram

  1. 01Requirements
  2. 02Evidence gathering
  3. 03Assessment
  4. 04Gap list
  5. 05Decision record

Example output

Illustrative output
{  "requirement": "Data residency options documented for the EU",  "vendor": "Vendor A",  "assessment": "partially met",  "evidence": {    "url": "https://example.com/docs/data-residency",    "excerpt": "EU processing is available on request for enterprise plans."  },  "follow_up": "Confirm whether EU residency applies to backups"}

Data-quality considerations

  • Public documentation is evidence of what is documented, not of what is implemented.
  • Keep 'not established' distinct from 'not supported'.
  • Date every piece of evidence — procurement cycles outlast page versions.

Failure modes

  • Marketing claims recorded as documented capability.
  • Requirements written too broadly to be answerable from any page.
  • Evidence collected once and reused after the vendor's docs change.

Suggested architecture

  • Requirement registry
  • Per-vendor evidence gathering
  • Assessment recorder
  • Gap list generator
  • Decision record store

What to test first

  1. 01Run three requirements end to end and have a reviewer challenge each assessment.
  2. 02Confirm the gap list is genuinely useful as a vendor question set.

Related reading