SR-08 · our practice ref · series-structure

Control externally supplied elements

Practice SR-08 in the System Definition and Realisation group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: SR-08
Process: System Definition and Realisation
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

System Definition and RealisationThe technical specification for each supplied element
System Definition and RealisationThe acceptance record and the supplier's evidence
System Definition and RealisationThe interface record between the supplied element and the rest

Questions before you sign

What exactly did we require the supplier to deliver?
How did we satisfy ourselves it was delivered?
What happens if the supplier changes the element?

The practice, in our words

Where an element is supplied by another organisation, state the technical requirement, the acceptance criteria and the evidence the supplier must provide. The VSE remains accountable for the system even when it did not build every part.

What it means in a VSE

Treat the supplier's deliverable as a configuration item. Record the acceptance test and the result. If the supplier's evidence is thin, the VSE's file is thin, whatever the contract says.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, control externally supplied elements has to earn its time. The test for SR-08 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 Control externally supplied elements row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for SR-08 is The technical specification for each supplied element. A named person must produce it on request.

For SR-08, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The acceptance record and the supplier's evidence. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for control externally supplied elements.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the control externally supplied elements practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For SR-08, 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 SR-08 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

A supplier accepted on price with no technical specification
The supplier's test report filed without a VSE acceptance decision

What changes from the 2019 report. For SR-08, system definition and realisation holds most of the evidence. The transition work is to keep the record as the work proceeds, not to reconstruct it at the end.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places control externally supplied elements inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For SR-08, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for SR-08 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, process list. Open the record and compare it with the SR-08 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.