Disciplined Agile

Vendor Management Mindset

To capture the mindset for effective vendor management, we extend the principles, promises, and guidelines of the Disciplined Agile® (DA™) mindset with philosophies.

mindset

Figure 1. The Disciplined Agile (DA) mindset for vendor management. 

To be effective at vendor management, we embrace these philosophies:

  1. Value through partnerships. We increase value through partnerships with other organizations. 
  2. Collaborative partnerships. We seek to build collaborative partnerships with other organizations, even when those organizations are our competitors or competitors to each other.
  3. Mutually beneficial partnerships. We seek to build, maintain, and evolve mutually beneficial relationships with our suppliers and partners. 
  4. We co-create with our partners. We co-create throughout the entire vendor management life cycle, including procurement. This means that we may even have both our own experts and vendor experts actively involved in the procurement process. 
  5. We are trusted advisors. We are a trusted advisor inside the organization to present and guide both supplier and partnering options.
  6. Organizational outcomes come first. We pursue organizational outcomes over local process conveniences, working in an enterprise aware manner.
  7. We protect our organization. We have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the organization.
  8. We address risk holistically. We address risk in an appropriate, proactive, and holistic manner.