Demonstrating procurement requirements instead of merely asserting them

Were users steered toward an optimal procurement choice by being shown the consequences of worse options?

No staged set of choices was used. The user's real software was run on a standard machine, and its failure demonstrated why a higher specification was necessary.

A vague requirement can be converted into observable evidence. The actual workload was run on the standard computer being proposed and, when the machine failed, the failure was shown directly to the people approving the budget. Decision-makers could see the operational consequence of choosing the cheaper specification. The same practical habit informs naval procurement history, where official requirements make more sense when tested against the work a system must perform.