---
source_id: SOP-001
date: 2026-08-20
owner: Marcus Ode, Business Development
status: approved method v1; scope review planned
---

# Monitoring method v1

This method replaces the ad hoc approach used for the Market Watch Q2 2026
report. It is written so it can be pasted into an AI assistant together with
the watch-list file and the press archive for a given reporting period, and
followed step by step. It can equally be followed by hand.

## Purpose

Identify every qualifying announcement, published during a stated reporting
period, that confirms a real commercial or operational event involving a
company and system on our watch-list. The result should be a short,
factual, source-checked list that Business Development can trust without
re-doing the work.

## Inputs required

- The watch-list file (the current company–system allow-list).
- The reporting period (a start date and an end date).
- The press archive or search results covering that period.

If any of these three is missing, stop and ask for it before producing a
result.

## The watch-list is an allow-list

Only companies listed in the watch-list file are in scope. A monitored
system is valid only under the company on the same row; do not attach a
system to a different company, even a related one. Approved aliases apply
only to the row they are listed on. A term listed as "not approved" on a row
must not be treated as a match for that row, even if it looks similar.

## Work one company at a time

Evaluate the companies on the watch-list one at a time, in order. For each
company:

1. Look for official announcements published within the reporting period.
2. Check whether the monitored system, or one of its approved aliases, is
   explicitly named.
3. Check whether the announcement confirms a qualifying event (see below).
4. If it does, verify it against the original item before recording it.
5. Record it in the output format below.
6. Move to the next company.

Continue until every company on the watch-list has been evaluated. Do not
stop after the first qualifying result, and do not stop after finishing one
company; the run is only complete once all companies have been checked.

## Qualifying events

An announcement qualifies only if it explicitly confirms one of the
following, for the monitored system on that company's row:

- official selection
- contract award, or a signed contract
- a confirmed order
- a follow-on order
- delivery started
- entry into operational service
- confirmed deployment or roll-out of the monitored system

## Exclusions

The following do not qualify on their own, even when they mention the
company or system:

- a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
- a tender notice or prior information notice (PIN)
- a trial, test, or acceptance test
- a demonstration or exhibition appearance
- a partnership announcement
- an acquisition
- a management change
- a recruitment announcement
- a financial results announcement
- a research programme announcement
- a rumour or unconfirmed report

An excluded item may still be worth noting for context, but it must not be
reported as a qualifying event unless the same source also explicitly
confirms one of the qualifying events above.

## Sources

Use only official sources: the company's own newsroom or website, the
customer's or operator's own website, or the website of the government
department, agency, or programme directly involved. For public-sector
awards, the buyer's own notice on a procurement portal is the controlling
evidence of award status and value; a supplier's press release corroborates
it and may be reported when no buyer notice is available.

Do not use trade media, aggregator sites, or third-party analysis pieces as
the basis for a qualifying event, even when they report a real underlying
story. They can point you toward something worth checking, but the
qualifying event must be confirmed at an official source.

When the run uses the press archive, an archive copy that records the
original publisher, the publication date, and the source type counts as the
original item. Judge it by the source type recorded on the copy.

## Verification

Always open the original item before recording anything. Never report a
qualifying event based on a headline, a snippet, or a summary alone;
headlines and summaries can overstate or misdate what the source actually
says.

## Reporting rules

- Report each qualifying event once, from its clearest official source.
- If a company has two separate qualifying events (for example an order and
  a later delivery), report them as two separate entries. Do not merge them.
- Do not infer facts the source does not state: not the customer's identity,
  not a quantity or value, not a delivery date, and not the underlying
  reason for the event.
- Preserve the distinction between selected, ordered, delivery started, and
  operational. These are different stages and must not be collapsed into
  one word such as "deployed".

## Output format

For every qualifying event, use exactly this structure:

```
COMPANY
System
Summary: two to four sentences describing what happened, in plain factual
language. State the customer or operator if named. Include quantities or
values only when the source states them.
Source: organization, date, file or reference.
```

If a company has no qualifying announcements for the period, write exactly:

"No qualifying announcements were identified for [company] during
[reporting period]."

## Known limitations of v1

This method deliberately narrows scope to keep the first version reliable.
It intentionally leaves out recruitment, acquisitions, partnerships, and
research programme announcements, even though some of these are useful
early signals for Business Development. A v2 method may widen scope to
capture some of these as a separate, clearly labelled signal category,
without weakening the qualifying-event standard above for confirmed
commercial and operational events.