At shortlist, use scope and evidence availability to decide who receives the common brief. At pilot award, score the plan and credible delivery evidence, explicitly marking future performance as unproven. At production acceptance, replace plan-based ratings with measured results. At renewal, reassess costs, reliability and exit feasibility against an updated baseline.
Keep an evidence register with criterion, claim, source passage/file, inspection date, rating, coverage flag, reviewer and next action. Record conflicts and supplier payments separately from scoring. A non-participating provider remains “not assessed”, not “bad”.
Close the process with a signed decision memo explaining the selected option, rejected alternatives, conditions and reassessment trigger. The useful output is an accountable decision, not an impressive-looking number.