Which Capability Area includes the Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) Practice Area?

The Supplier Agreement Management (SAM) Practice Area is fundamentally about the relationship and interaction between an organization and its suppliers. This practice focuses on selecting appropriate suppliers, establishing agreements, and managing those relationships effectively to ensure that the products and services provided meet the organization's requirements.

Choosing suppliers is not just about cost but also about ensuring quality and timely delivery, aligning supplier capabilities with organizational needs, and managing the performance of those suppliers throughout the duration of the agreement. This falls squarely within the Capability Area of selecting and managing suppliers, where the organization aims to create partnerships that enhance overall performance and effectiveness.

In contrast, the other areas such as improving performance, risk management, and quality assurance, while they might be interrelated to some extent with supplier management, do not specifically encapsulate the focus and intent of the SAM practice. Improving performance broadly addresses organizational goals, risk management pertains to identifying and mitigating risks that could impact the organization, and quality assurance focuses on maintaining product and service quality. Each of these areas may touch upon aspects of supplier management but does not specifically define the scope of managing supplier agreements, which is explicitly covered under selecting and managing suppliers.