Which of the following is an input to the plan procurement management process?

What is Administer Procurement Process?

This is the process of managing procurement relationships, monitoring contract performance and making changes and corrections as needed.

Inputs

The key inputs to this process are a contract, other procurement documents, and work performance information. Work performance Information basically has the information about the progress of the work, i.e. how much work is completed and what's the cost incurred to complete that work. In this case, it has information like how much work is completed as per the contract and money spent to get that work completed as per the contract.

Performance reports listed as inputs are basically reports created by the seller on what they have completed and any other seller created a technical report about the contract work progress. The Project Management Plan is also listed as input because the contract work should progress as per the project plan.

Techniques

There are various techniques used for administering procurement. Lets first look at, Contract Change Control System. This is similar to a normal change control system but used specifically for managing changes to the contract. Usually, the process of making changes to the contract, i.e. Contract Change Control System is listed in the contract document itself. The next technique is Procurement Performance reviews this is the process of formally reviewing the seller deliverables. Usually, this is also documented in the contract document. In many large contracts, the procurement performance reviews are done once a month. Sometimes unscheduled inspection and audits can also be performed by the buyer to ensure that seller is following the processes that they claim they do. Many a time this is done to ensure compliance.

For example, as a buyer, you can have a policy that all your seller should comply with ISO 9001:2008 standards. You can do your own audit on the seller to check whether they really comply with that standard or not. Releasing the payment of the work performed by the seller is also part of this process. Sometimes buyer and seller may get into a dispute regarding a change. The seller may ask for additional money for the change and the buyer may claim that it's the part of the original scope. Such contested changes are also called claims or dispute. The contracts usually have claims administration process to settle such disputes. The best way to settle such dispute for the buyer and the seller is to seat across a table negotiate and agree on a midway.

The first out of four procurement-related project management processes is in the Planning Process group, and is the process which creates the guidelines for all of the procurement activities on the project.  It helps document the project procurement decisions, specifies the approach taken to identify potential sellers and carry out the procurements.

2.  Inputs

The inputs to this process are numerous, but that’s because from the standpoint of the seller, the producing the procurement is going to be an entire project in and of itself, and thus requires the same knowledge areas that are going to be used in the buyer’s project, of which the procurement is just a part.

Inputs are therefore coming from scope, time, cost, human resources, risk, and stakeholder knowledge areas.  Important information from the industry at large (EEFs) and internal procedural guidelines (OPAs) are also crucial to the process.

1. Project scope statement

• description of the product, service, or result
• list of deliverables
• acceptance criteria
• technical issues or concerns
• constraints such as delivery dates, available skilled resources

1. WBS—indicates which components of work may be resourced externally
2. WBS dictionary—provides identification of deliverables and description of work needed to produce them

• Project requirements
• Contractual and legal requirements

• List of risks
• Analysis of risks
• Risk response planning

• Marketplace conditions, and products, services, and results available in the marketplace
• Suppliers’ past performance or reputation
• Typical terms and conditions for the specific industry
• Unique local requirements

• Formal procurement policies, procedures, guidelines
• Management systems which may affect contractual relationships
• Multi-tier supplier system or prequalified sellers based on prior experience

• expert purchasing judgment
• expert legal judgment
• expert technical judgment
• expert business judgment

• Requirements documentation
• Requirements traceability matrix
• Risk register

3.  Tools & Techniques

The main tool is the make-or-buy analysis, which is the basis on deciding whether or not a procurement is even desirable.  The market research based on the information from EEFs is utilized by the various types of experts, and information on the potential seller companies is either obtained from industry sources or from meetings with the companies themselves.

4.  Outputs

The main output of this process is the Procurement Management Plan, which gives guidelines on how to conduct all of the procurement activities on the project.  Of course, whether or not there will even be a procurement is the result of the make-or-buy decision.  If the decision is to “make” rather than “buy”, then you will need to make a change request stating this, and then you will need the Procurement Statement of Work or SOW, basically the portion of the scope that the seller will be responsible for producing, and the procurement documents and source selection criteria to be used when selecting the seller in the next process, 12.2 Conduct Procurements.

5.  Conclusion

This Procurement Management Plan, the output of this process, is the blueprint for all of the other procurement activities that may be conducted during the course of the project.   I say “may” be conducted because it is entirely possible that some projects may be done ENTIRELY within the organization, in which case Procurement Management may be unnecessary on those projects.

Before going on to discuss the next process 12.2 Conduct Procurements, it will be necessary to go into some more detail this week and next week on some of the inputs, tools & techniques, and outputs of this process, including

What are inputs to the plan procurement management process?

Which of the following is not an input to plan procurement management process?

What are the 4 main processes of project procurement management?

What are 5 components of a procurement management plan?