Related processes

In OCDS each contracting process can have only one planning and tender stage. There are a number of cases where it is important to know about related planning and tendering processes, including:

• When one planning process results in many tenders;
• What a contract is awarded following two or more invitation to tender processes, such as in some processes involving pre-qualification, of frameworks with mini-competitions;
• When a contract results in the award of sub-contracts also tracked through OCDS data;
• When a contract is coming up for renewal or replacement, and there is a contracting process to award the renewal/replacement contract;

In all these cases, the relatedProcess block can be used to cross-reference between the relevant open contracting processes using their OCID.

Process and contract relationships

A related process can be declared at two points in an OCDS release.

(1) A the release level - used to point backwards to prior processes, such as planning, PQQ or framework establishment.

(2) At the contract level - used to point onwards to sub-contracts, renewal or replacement processes that relate solely to the particular contract the property appears in.

As well as providing this machine-readable link between processes, publishers may also provide links to human-readable documentation in the relevant documents blocks. For example:

• When recording a release/relatedProcess pointing to the ocid of the planning process that resulted in a tender, a tender/documents entry with a documentType of 'procurementPlan' and a link to web pages about the procurement plan could be provided;
• When recording a contract/relatedProcess pointing to the ocid of a sub-contracting process, a contract/documents entry with a documentType of 'subContract' and a title that describes it as the subcontracting process, could be provided;
• When recording a contract/relatedProcess pointing to the ocid of a tender process to renew a given contract, a contract/documents entry with a documentType of 'tenderNotice' and a title that describes it as the successor process, could be provided;

Codelists

The relatedProcess codelist is given below.

Code	Title	Description
preQualification	Pre-qualification process	This contracting process follows on from the related pre-Qualification process. The qualified suppliers are listed in the award section of the related process.
preSelection	Pre-selection process	"This contracting process follows on from the related pre-selection process which sought to identify, prior to solicitation, a limited number of suppliers or contractors that best meet the qualification criteria for the procurement concerned. These suppliers are listed in the award section of the related process."
framework	Framework agreement procedure first stage	This contracting process follows on from the related process to establish a framework. The suppliers on the framework are listed in the award section of the related process.
planning	Planning process	This contracting process follows on from the related planning process.
parent	Parent contract (for sub-contracts)	This contracting process may result in a sub-contract of the related process.
prior	Prior process	This contracting process is the renewal or replacement of the related prior process.
unsuccessfulProcess	Unsuccessful process	This contracting process follows on from an previous unsuccessful process.
subContract	Sub-contract	The related process may result in a sub-contract of this contract.
replacementProcess	Replacement process	The related process may result in the replacement of this contract.
renewalProcess	Renewal process	The related process may result in the renewal of this contract.

See issue #371.