Vendor Clarifications Without Chaos

Clarifications go wrong when they become informal chats and scattered emails.

A clean clarification process has three features:

• Traceability: every question has an ID and a documented response

• Ownership: one person controls the log and deadlines

• Closure: each item ends with a decision (accept, reject, revise)

A simple workflow:

1. Collect questions in a single clarification log

2. Categorize: Technical / Quality / Commercial / Logistics / Licensing

3. Set due dates and escalation rules

4. Require supporting evidence (not just “confirmed”)

5. Freeze critical parameters after closure

This protects both sides. Suppliers quote confidently, and buyers avoid “he said/she said” later.

The key: clarifications should reduce uncertainty, not create it. If answers generate new questions, it usually means the original scope wasn’t defined well—fix the baseline, then clarify.

Takeaway: A structured clarification log is one of the cheapest ways to reduce project risk.