grceng.academy
YAML lab 45 bonus XP

Specify the vendor intake pipeline

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Objectives

Procurement wants every vendor to get 'the full questionnaire, to be safe'. That includes the office plant service and the payroll provider in the same workflow. Meanwhile the register marks vendors green when a file exists, regardless of age.

Write the intake specification the pipeline will run: tiering driven by data access, scoring by declared rules, evidence ingested on a schedule with a freshness window, and delta detection against the previous return.

Current process (as described by procurement)

process: annual questionnaire
scope: all 400 vendors, identical questionnaire
tiering: by annual contract value
scoring: analyst judgement, 1-5, "how it reads"
evidence: "SOC 2 on file (yes/no)"
recertification: "when someone remembers"

Checks the server runs (7)

  • Tiering follows data access, not spend
  • Questionnaire depth varies by tier
  • Scoring is declared rules, not judgement
  • Evidence arrives via API or scheduled feed
  • Evidence expires after a stated window
  • Year-over-year answer changes raise an alert
  • A trigger exists for moving a vendor between tiers

Check names are all you see here: the expectations that decide pass or fail, and the reference solution, stay on the server.

Step-by-step hints

The guided walkthrough, in full. It is free: no XP cost, and it does not touch the paid hint ladder or the reveal gate.

  1. Step 1

    Fix the sorting axis first

    The fixture tiers by contract value, which ranked the plant service above the payroll provider. State what the tier actually follows: the data the vendor can touch.

    Tiering follows data access, not spendQuestionnaire depth varies by tier

  2. Step 2

    Make the score reproducible

    A 1-5 score based on how an answer reads cannot be reconstructed. Declare rules, answer patterns mapped to scores, so two analysts (or one pipeline) reach the same number.

    Scoring is declared rules, not judgement

  3. Step 3

    Give evidence a shelf life

    'On file' is existence, not coverage. Ingest evidence on a schedule and set a freshness window in days, so an artefact whose period ended fourteen months ago stops rendering green.

    Evidence arrives via API or scheduled feedEvidence expires after a stated window

  4. Step 4

    Close the two loops

    Delta detection compares this year's structured answers to last year's and flags the change. A retier trigger names the event, new data access, new subprocessor, incident, that moves a vendor between tiers without waiting for the annual cycle.

    Year-over-year answer changes raise an alertA trigger exists for moving a vendor between tiers

Rules summary

  • XP on pass

    45 bonus XP the first time every check goes green.

  • Paid hints

    2 available. Each costs 25% of the lab XP (about 11 XP).

  • Reveal solution

    Scores 0 XP and unlocks only after 3 check runs.

  • Attempt cap

    60 check runs per learner. The runner warns you in the last 10.

  • Drafts

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  • Walkthrough

    Always free and never penalised: use it before spending a hint.