Dealbreaker

Also: Knock-out criterion, Ausschlusskriterium

A hard requirement that immediately disqualifies an option if not met, independent of weighted scoring. Dealbreakers enforce non-negotiable constraints (EU hosting, specific certifications, data residency) and prevent weak options from winning on aggregate scores.

A dealbreaker is different from a criterion. Criteria are weighted and summed; dealbreakers are binary filters that run before scoring. If an option fails a dealbreaker, it is out regardless of how well it scores elsewhere.

In regulated decisions, dealbreakers usually map to regulatory constraints that cannot be traded against price or features. Common examples: EU-only data residency under DORA, ISO 27001 certification for a critical vendor, BSI C5 testing in public-sector procurement, NIS2-compatible incident reporting cadence.

The procedural value is huge: by separating dealbreakers from weighted criteria, a decision memo cannot accidentally award a contract to a vendor that is not actually eligible. This is one of the most frequent sources of post-signature reversal in enterprise buying.

Dealbreaker

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