At a glance
- Ref
- AC-01
- Process
- Acquisition Management
- Basis
- public-record
- Source
- Public abstract, 1.1 Fields of application
- Evidence
- 3 items
- Gaps
- 2 common
Evidence to keep
- Acquisition ManagementThe make-or-buy decision record with the reason
- Acquisition ManagementThe comparison that supported it
- Acquisition ManagementThe person who approved it
Questions before you sign
- Why are we acquiring this element?
- What would building it have cost in time and capability?
- Who approved the decision?
The practice, in our words
Record the decision to acquire an element or service rather than build it, with the reason. The reason is usually capability, capacity or cost, and it belongs in the file because it explains the supplier relationship that follows.
What it means in a VSE
Compare build and buy on the same three axes: capability, time and whole-life cost. Write the decision in one paragraph with the person who made it. A decision made by default is the one most likely to be revisited badly.
In a firm of 25 people or fewer, decide to acquire rather than build has to earn its time. The test for AC-01 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.
How to evidence it
Attach the artefacts above to the Decide to acquire rather than build row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for AC-01 is The make-or-buy decision record with the reason. A named person must produce it on request.
For AC-01, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The comparison that supported it. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for decide to acquire rather than build.
What an assessor samples
An assessor reads the decide to acquire rather than build practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For AC-01, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for AC-01 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.
Common gaps
- Acquisition chosen because the team was too busy to design it
- No record, so nobody remembers why the supplier is there
Where the draft fits
The public abstract places decide to acquire rather than build inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For AC-01, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, 1.1 Fields of application and does not quote the draft. The basis label for AC-01 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.
Related practices
Source for this page: Public abstract, 1.1 Fields of application. Open the record and compare it with the AC-01 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.