Sovereignty, Dependency and Strategic Choice

All courses / AI Leader / Module 5 / Chapter 26

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Classify a provider relationship as strategic or ordinary using the three questions of the chapter.
• Explain why exit conditions belong in the procurement that creates a dependency.
• Review a sovereignty claim against the four properties and say what evidence counts for each.
• Draft a strategic dependency decision record with options, exit conditions, exit cost, evidence age and review date.

Key concepts

Strategic dependency

A dependency that binds the organisation's options for years. Three working questions identify it: can the provider be substituted within a period the organisation can survive, how many decision classes and services pass through it, and can the effect of a failure or change of terms be undone.

Concentration as a property of the graph

Concentration depends on the dependency graph, not the number of vendors: four providers relying on the same name service, identity federation or cloud region are one dependency. DORA Article 29(1) names a provider that is not easily substitutable and multiple arrangements with connected providers.

Model retirement

A service that rests on a hosted model has an expiry date set by someone else. Providers retire models on published schedules, and the work of migrating to the successor, including re-testing quality, falls on the customer.

Exit test

A restore test whose scenario is the loss of a provider, with a time objective, a quality gate, measurement by someone other than the runner and an expiry on the claim. A stressed exit is forced; a planned exit is chosen; the leader needs both.

Sovereignty by properties

Four properties from AI Platform and Security, Chapter 13: where workloads run, which law governs, the ability to move and the ability to continue. Each is claimed per strategic dependency, with a date and a result, never once for the whole organisation.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. Nordvik's committee chose a one-year extension and a tender because it could not show that it could leave. What would a four-year extension have meant in the chapter's terms, and would your organisation have noticed?
2. A budget that funds the dependency and not the exit has chosen the dependency by omission. Which of the four cost components of an exit is funded in your organisation today?
3. A leader of a contracting authority cannot score 'sovereign' by assertion. Which verifiable properties would you turn into weighted criteria before the next tender is published?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. What did Nordvik Region's first exit test of the staff assistant, RST-NR-2029-001, show?

   1. It missed its time objective and passed its quality gate at the first attempt
   2. It passed both objectives and was extended to the benefits-triage service
   3. It was cancelled because the provider would not take part
   4. It met its time objective and missed its quality gate at 0.87 against 0.90, and the re-test passed at 0.91
   Show the answer

   D. It met its time objective and missed its quality gate at 0.87 against 0.90, and the re-test passed at 0.91
   The serving configuration was not in the bundle. The record states what failed and what was repaired, carries an age, and covers one service at one provider; no exit test of the benefits-triage service exists.

2. For the property 'ability to move', which evidence does the chapter say counts?

   1. An exit plan approved by the management body and filed with the contract
   2. A dated exit test measured by someone other than the runner
   3. A contract clause that permits termination
   4. A marketing statement of a European offering
   Show the answer

   B. A dated exit test measured by someone other than the runner
   An exit plan that has not been tested does not count. The rights make an exit permissible; whether it is feasible is shown only by a test with a date, a result and an independent measurement.

3. Why do the questions about exit belong in the procurement and not in the crisis, according to the chapter's reading of lock-in?

   1. Because procurement law forbids renegotiation once a contract is signed
   2. Because providers are required to publish exit plans before any tender
   3. Because the bargaining position is strongest before signature and weakest after migration has become expensive
   4. Because a crisis suspends the customer's switching rights under the Data Act
   Show the answer

   C. Because the bargaining position is strongest before signature and weakest after migration has become expensive
   Vendors compete hard before lock-in to earn market power over existing customers afterwards. The leader's leverage is therefore at its peak before signing, which is when exit conditions can be written in.