Vendor Assessment RFQ
The Vendor Assessment RFQ pattern creates a Document Artifact that is part of the model and can be opened and edited inside Enterprise Architect and also saved to an external file. It can be used to create a Request for Quotation or similar document such as a Request for Information or a Request for Tender.

Figure 1. Shows the title page of the RFQ document allowing a company logo to be inserted.

Figure 2. Shows the Table of Contents of the Document Artifact that is used to create a Request for Quotation as a formal assessment of a vendor's capability.
Discussion
The purpose of the pattern is to allow Project Managers, Business Analysts and other stakeholders to create a document inside the repository that provides a series of questions that one or more vendors need to respond to. The document can then be exported from the Repository and disseminated to any number of potential vendors. 

It is typically used early on in an initiative when a Project Manager or Business Analyst needs to make a formal assessment of one or more vendors and create a document that can be sent to market allowing the vendors to respond to a set of formal questions. Any type of document can be created including:
·	A Request for Information (RFI),
A Request for Quotation (RFQ),
A Request for Proposal (RFP),
A Request for Tender (RFT),
Other less formal documents

The following is a list of some things you may want to do when working with this pattern.
·	Replace the Cover Page Image with a Company or Project logo.
Create additional textual content in the document.
Insert Tables into the document as containers for tabular information.
Insert Headers and Footers as required.
Use the Track Changes feature if you need to keep track of the text that is changed in the document.

The following is a list of some of the next steps available when applying the pattern.
·	Create Traces to other elements - The Document is contained in an Artifact Element that can be linked to other elements in the model. A trace Relationship can be used to relate up-process or down-process elements and a name, notes or tagged value on the relationship can be used to describe the relationship to the document.
Save the Document as an External File - The document Artifact can be saved as an external file making it available to be opened in an external editor such as a word processing tool.
Reference
The following help topics will assist you learn about how to work with this pattern.
Vendor Assessment
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)
Traceability Tools
Documentation

The following are some of the tools that will be helpful when working with this pattern.
Linked Documents
Linked Documents provide a way of incorporating extensive and highly formatted documentation for an element. While an elements notes are a useful place to provide brief and visible information about an element a Linked Document can be used to create extensive documentation for an element including all the features you available in a typical word processing tool such as: Paragraph Formatting, Header and Footers, Table Images, Tables of contents and much more. For more details see the Linked Documents help topic.
Document Window
The Document Window is a powerful tool for generating, reading and editing narrative style information for an element. There are two tabs: the Dynamic Document Tab and the Linked Document Tab. The Dynamic Document tab generates documentation automatically from element information and the Linked Document tab cab be used for reading and editing an element's linked document. For more details see the Document Window help topic.
Document Generator
The Document Generator is a powerful facility in Enterprise Architect that allows a Database Engineer or other stakeholder to create high quality corporate or technical documentation directly from the model, suitable for internal or external audiences. For more details see the Documentation help topic or the more general topic on Model Publishing.
Element Discussions
The Element Discussion facility is a fully featured collaboration tool allowing modelers and model viewers and reviewers to communicate with each other directly inside the repository. Modelers using the full client or occasional viewers using WebEA can both post and reply to discussions and communicate and engage in chat. For more details see the Element Discussions help topic.
Specification View
The Specification View can be used as a way of working with any element type in a spreadsheet or word process view. It is particularly useful when there are a large number of elements as is typically the case when describing a system of any appreciable size. For more details see the Specification View help topic.
Relationship Matrix
The Relationship Matrix provides a spreadsheet like view of two groups of elements and the relationships that exist between them. It can be a used as a powerful analysis mechanism to visually indicate how elements are related to each other and to discover which elements are missing relationships. For more details see the Relationship Matrix  help topic.
Traceability Window
The Traceability Window automatically displays the relationships that exist between Use Cases and other model elements including up-process and down-process elements. The traceability tree view can be conveniently expanded to see deeper relationships and elements displayed in the window can be located in all diagrams in which they appear. For more details see the Traceability Window  help topic.

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