Project Procurement Management

Book excerpt: Not all project procurements are the same. Unless the project carefully makes an assessment of the items it will make, versus the items it will buy, and then adequately plans for these purchases, the risks of performance will increase. Project procurements are simply sub-projects, which need to be managed well, not blindly delegated to an independent organization to buy for the project. Certain procurements, major complexity developments, creating something new, which does not exist, according to the project's unique specification, must be managed by the project team, and supported by the professional procurement organization. The project's team leader must assume the management responsibility. This book zeroes in on the effective management of that portion of the project which will be performed by another organization. It focuses on the procurement of scope from an organization outside of the project. Often, the success or failure of a project is dependent on how well the project can plan, define, solicit, authorize and manage this external relationship. This book has been updated to be consistent with Chapter 12 of the Fourth Edition of the PMBOK ® Guide, released by PMI in December 2008.