The vendor is late on a critical deliverable. What should I ask for?
Supplier delivery underperformanceRequest an evidence-based recovery plan covering remaining work, constraints, responsibilities, and revised milestones. Assess the project impact before accepting another unsupported date.
What to do now
- Verify actual completion evidence
- Identify causes and shared dependencies
- Request a quantified recovery plan
- Agree monitoring and authorized escalation
When to escalate
Escalate when
The delay threatens a critical commitment or contractual tolerance.
Who decides
The authorized procurement or commercial owner
Example
A vendor's recovery plan identifies the unfinished integration tests and named staff assigned to complete them.
Mistake to avoid
Accepting a new date without understanding what changed.
Prevent a repeat
Compare supplier evidence with agreed obligations; refer contract interpretation and remedies to qualified owners.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Vendors
- Documents
- Tasks
- Approvals
Keep supplier commitments and evidence linked to the project, assign follow-up work, and route commercial decisions to authorized owners. See the platform
Related cases
- The vendor refuses to share progress evidence. What should we do?Unverifiable supplier delivery
- The vendor says knowledge transfer is not included. How do we respond?Missing supplier transition scope
- A team member keeps missing commitments. What should I check first?Unexamined performance barrier
- Every task is on time, but the project is late. What are we missing?Missing schedule relationships