Governance6 min read• Format: MarkdownOpen Engineering Artefact
Technical Buyer RFP & Architecture Scoping Evaluation Matrix
Objective criteria for evaluating software engineering and systems architecture partners
Engineering Artefact Summary
An objective 20-point technical evaluation matrix designed for CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and procurement leaders vetting technology partners.
Raw Template Specification (technical-buyer-rfp-evaluation.md)
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# Technical Buyer RFP & Scoping Evaluation Matrix
## Evaluation Categories & Weighting
### 1. Architectural Rigor & Code Ownership (30% Weight)
- [ ] **IP Transfer on Day 1:** Does the vendor transfer 100% code ownership and repository access immediately, without licensing restrictions?
- [ ] **Static Typing & Modern Tooling:** Does the vendor build exclusively in strictly-typed languages (TypeScript strict, Go, Rust) with zero `any` types?
- [ ] **Architecture Decision Records:** Does the vendor document every structural technical choice in version-controlled ADRs?
### 2. Engineering Quality & Test Automation (25% Weight)
- [ ] **Branch Coverage Standards:** Is automated unit and integration test coverage mandated at >85% in CI before merge?
- [ ] **Hermetic Testing:** Are integration tests executed against real ephemeral containers (PostgreSQL / Kafka) rather than naive in-memory mocks?
- [ ] **Static Security Scanning:** Are automated SAST, dependency vulnerability, and secret leak scanners integrated into PR checks?
### 3. Commercial Transparency & Scope Management (25% Weight)
- [ ] **Transparent Milestones:** Are project deliverables broken into 2-week verifiable sprint milestones with clear acceptance criteria?
- [ ] **No Hidden Retainers:** Are maintenance and support models clearly separated from capital build milestones?
### 4. Security & Compliance Posture (20% Weight)
- [ ] **Zero-Trust Infrastructure:** Are cloud infrastructure configurations versioned as Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) with least-privilege IAM?
- [ ] **Data Privacy Isolation:** Does the architecture enforce strict tenant isolation at the database level (PostgreSQL RLS)?
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