Examining the Results of Procurement Planning

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Procurement planning is a process that should happen early in the planning processes. The outputs of procurement planning allow the project manager and the project team to proceed with confidence in the procuring of products and services needed to successfully complete the project. If it is determined early in the project that there is not a need for procurements then obviously the balance of the procurement processes is not necessary for the project.

Exam Watch

The contractual relationship between the buyer and the seller is often considered confidential and secret. This relationship is known as privity.

Procurement Management Plan

This subsidiary project plan documents the decisions made in the procurement planning processes. It specifies how the remaining procurement activities will be managed. The plan details the following:

• How vendors will be selected

• The type of contracts to be used

• The process of independent estimating

• The relationship between the project team and the procurement office within the performing organization (if one exists)

• The procurement forms, such as contracts, the project team is required to use

• How multiple vendors will be managed to supply their contracted product

• The coordination between sellers and the project team and among project activities, project reporting, scheduling, business operations, and other project concerns

Using the Statement of Work

In the Statement of Work (SOW), the seller fully describes the work to be completed and/or the product to be supplied. The SOW becomes part of the contract between the buyer and the seller. The SOW is typically created as part of the procurement planning process, and it allows the seller to determine if it can meet the written requirements of the SOW.

Particular industries have different assumptions about what constitutes an SOW. What one industry calls a SOW may be a Statement of Objectives (SOO) in another. A SOO is a document describing a problem to be solved by the seller.

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