Assess relevant implementation experience, how requirements become a scope, how completion is verified and what happens after release. A polished demo or a low quote alone does not establish who owns the operational work. Give every candidate the same questions and materials.
[01]What should you check in a portfolio?
Look beyond matching industry names to similar workflows and responsibilities. Ask whether the provider handled design alone or also integrations, migration and operations. An anonymized workflow or test environment can substitute for confidential client materials. For outcome metrics, ask about measurement conditions and the provider's contribution.
[02]What belongs in a proposal comparison?
| Criterion | Ask each provider |
|---|---|
| Scope | Included and excluded work, and customer inputs |
| Acceptance | Example data, acceptance criteria, defects versus changes |
| Ownership | Named owners, update cadence and issue decisions |
| Handover | Repositories, operating accounts, deployment documentation and training |
| After release | Defect support period, operations, enhancement costs and response process |
[03]Does receiving source code make a system operable?
Operation may also require deployment environments, configuration management, databases, file storage, domain and email accounts, provider access and documentation. Define ownership around company accounts and check how access can be revoked at handover. Agree on secure transfer and management rather than collecting passwords in a document.
[04]How should you compare changes and support?
Distinguish failures of agreed behavior from requests for new behavior, using acceptance examples and explicit exclusions. For support, ask about contact channels, service hours, incident responsibilities and third-party outages. BOYD also agrees on specific scope and terms before contracting.
[05]What should you ask in the first meeting?
- What is most uncertain in our workflow, and what should be tested first?
- What should be excluded or deferred within our budget?
- Which acceptance criteria can we verify using real data?
- What documentation and access remain if another team takes over?
- Choosing a partner
- Acceptance and handover
