How does procurement management fit in the process groups?

The six procurement processes are common sense ones, and boil down to deciding what you need to procure, and then managing the procurement. They all fit into the process groups in a common sense way too (Table 12.1). Note that the table shows the normal model as given in the PMBOK, but you should vary it when necessary. It is the normal model in that, normally, you will not want to or be able to start procurement during project initiation. That is too soon, because you won't know enough about what needs to be procured, and even if you do, at that stage of the project there are many other higher priorities. The right place to start procurement is therefore in the planning process group, because procurement needs to be planned. As we say, there will be exceptions. If procurement is a major part of the project, or there is a particularly long lead time, and time is already tight, then you may want to vary the model above and start working on procurement as part of project initiation. If procurement is a small and very simple part of your project, then perhaps there is effectively no planning to be done. And there are many projects where there is no procurement at all.

Table 12.1. Six project procurement management processes

Process Group
Initiating	Planning		Executing		Monitoring and controlling		Closing
	1	Plan and purchase acquisitions	3	Request seller[*] responses	5	Contract administration	6	Contract closure
	2	Plan contracting	4	Select sellers

^[*] The PMBOK Guide uses the term 'seller'. In this book we use the terms 'seller' and 'supplier' interchangeably, and we prefer 'supplier' because not all parties who supply the procurement needs of a project are sellers: apart from the pedantic (in this context) possibility of hiring rather than buying, in large corporations or government departments there will be intra-organizational suppliers who are not sellers in the conventional sense. If you are taking the PMI's professional exams, think in terms of 'sellers' only. In the real world you will find many organizations use 'supplier' where PMI uses 'seller'.

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