Thresholds within AWARD are used within Evaluation Projects to set up a minimum threshold which Suppliers will need to score. Thresholds within AWARD use Rules to determine the threshold limits within the Project.
If an Evaluation Project is created, and the Automatic Cost Calculation option is selected, then the Thresholds functionality will be enabled automatically. This will also create two Rules by default: Minimum Acceptable Cost and Minimum Acceptable Score, and each will have a Threshold Value of 0, unless this was changed upon the Project creation.
If the Threshold setting is not enabled by default upon the Project creation, it can be enabled by navigating to Setup / Tools / Advanced Settings and clicking the Enable Thresholds button. This will add the extra Thresholds tab to the Project.
From the Thresholds tab, click Rules to edit and create the threshold Rules within the Project.
To create a new Rule, click the Create button. Give the Rule a name and select an Answer Measure, then click Next. The categories for the selected Answer Measure will be displayed here. Select the Category you wish to use and click Next. The Rule will then need to be selected - These will usually show as either the category must be less or equal to a value, or greater or equal to a value. Select the option, then click Next. Finally, you should be prompted to enter the Threshold Value. Once this has been done, click the Save button to save the rule.
Once there are Rules present within the Project, you will see a warning note at the top of the Information page within the Thresholds tab if it hasn't been configured properly yet. This warning sign will give an indication of what needs to be changed to configure the Thresholds correctly.
These warning messages can also be used to indicate non-compliancy for submissions. These non-compliance violation warnings will appear if a submissions result indicates they should be marked as non-compliant, or if the Submission is currently marked as Compliant but the latest results indicate they are non-compliant.
Once the new Rule has been created, it must be assigned to the appropriate Questions. To do so, click the Rule that was created, and click the Add button under the Questions heading. From here, select the questions you wish to assign the Rule to. This Rule will then be applied to those Questions. The Rules that are created upon Project creation for Projects with the Automatic Cost Calculation option enabled are automatically linked to the top level question.
Once the Evaluation has been undergone, additional warning messages may appear under the Information page within the Thresholds tab. These warning messages will indicate non-compliancy for submissions. These non-compliance violation warnings will appear if a submissions result indicates they should be marked as non-compliant, or if the Submission is currently marked as Compliant but the latest results indicate they are non-compliant.
From these generated violation warnings, Compliance Records can be created. The heading for Compliance Records can be found under the Information page within the Thresholds tab. These can be used to formally mark a Submission as compliant or non-compliant.