Knowledge Area:Project Procurement Management

• How do you plan for your procurements?

We will quickly do a make or BUY analysis. We check our existing resource pool and capabilities to DECIDE if we can do the entire development or we will need some kind of assistance from third parties. IF we will realize that we need to outsource some development work or if we realize that we may have to augment our team by hiring some expert staff members contractually for the project, we will need to plan for procurement. We need to clearly decide and define what we need to procure.

To know more about procurement management, refer our article at: procurement management

• What are the different types of bid documents you may be preparing for procurement management?

Once we decide what we need to procure, may it be man power or may it be outsourcing a chunk of work, we will have to develop a statement of work. We also will have to identify other terms and CONDITIONS which we expect the suppliers to fulfil. We also need to identify clear criteria for selecting the suppliers. We than need to put all these information in a formal document referred as a bid document.

Some of the popular bid documents include request for proposal (RFP), request for quote (RFQ), request for information (RFI), request for bid (RFB) etc.

The above documents as appropriate then will be floated and shared with prospective bidders/suppliers so that they can understand our requirements and can prepare a proposal for us.

To know more about them, refer our article at: procurement documents

• What contract types you will be using for engaging with suppliers and contractors for different procurements?

There will be a need for GETTING into a formal agreement with the selected suppliers. These agreements will be legally binding agreements for safeguarding the interests and rights of both sides, while defining the obligations of both sides as well.

There are a number of contract types which exist, and can be APPROPRIATELY selected in different situations. Broadly the contract types include the following:

1. Fixed Price Contract
2. Time and Material Contract
3. Cost Reimbursable Contract

To know more about contract types, you can refer our article at: project contract types