Contract management frameworks often categorize processes by their level of complexity and application. "Advanced" processes are more rigorous, resource-intensive, and sophisticated. Due to their cost and complexity, they are not applied universally to all procurements. Instead, they are selectively tailored and implemented for procurements that carry higher risk, value, or strategic importance, such as large, highly visible projects. These processes go beyond the fundamental, day-to-day activities to provide deeper analysis, oversight, and control where it is most needed.

A. basic: Basic processes are the foundational, essential activities that are applied to most, if not all, procurements to ensure compliance and standard procedure.

C. mature: Maturity describes the overall quality, consistency, and effectiveness of an organization's entire process framework, not a specific category of processes to be applied selectively.

D. optimized: Optimization is the highest level of process maturity, focused on continuous improvement and data-driven refinement, rather than a set of processes reserved for specific projects.

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1. National Contract Management Association (NCMA). (2023). Contract Management Body of Knowledge (CMBOK)® (7th ed.).

Section 1.3.4, "Tailoring," states, "The project contract manager, in collaboration with the project team, is responsible for determining which processes are appropriate... For some projects, a simple agreement may be all that is needed... For other projects, a more robust approach may be required." This principle of tailoring directly supports applying more robust ("advanced") processes selectively to more complex ("large, highly visible") projects.

2. National Contract Management Association (NCMA). (2019). Contract Management Standard™ (CMS™) (Third Edition). ANSI/NCMA ASD 1-2019.

Section 1.0, "Introduction," notes that "The contract management process is scalable. The level of rigor and detail in the application of the contract management process should be tailored to the specific circumstances of the contract..." This reinforces that a higher level of rigor (i.e., advanced processes) is not standard but is applied based on the specific procurement's needs.