You need to know about project procurement management

Purchasing is getting goods 、 Supplies and / The act of serving . therefore , Project procurement is to obtain all materials and services required for the project . Project procurement management includes the process used to ensure the success of project procurement .

Project procurement management includes three main processes ：
- Plan to purchase
- Purchase
- management （ Or control ） purchase

Project management knowledge manual (PMBOK) Previous versions of include a fourth process , Called close sourcing , But it has been removed from the Sixth Edition .

1、 Plan to purchase

The first step in successful project procurement management is to develop a plan . This includes planning for ：

- What materials and services are needed for the project ？ This includes all specifications for materials and services , Such as minimum quality requirements .
- What your company can offer , What should you buy elsewhere ？ This is called decision and purchase decision . Even if your company can do something internally , Outsourcing can also bring benefits , Like cost savings 、 Accelerate delivery, etc .
- What are the contractual requirements for external procurement ？
- Is there a specified delivery date ？
- Want a fixed price contract or a reimbursable cost ？
- Are there any key milestones to include ？
- What are the legal terms and conditions that must be met ？
- How to find suppliers of required materials or services ？
- Whether the RFP will be issued （RFP）？
- Is there a preferred supplier ？
- What are the criteria for winning the job ？
- If all contractual requirements are met , Whether based on price ？
- Are there any other ways to evaluate bidders ？

In the planning stage , It is also important to determine how changes will be handled after contract award . such as , What happens when a supplier tells you they can't deliver on time ？ The main output of this process is a written procurement management plan , It is a subsidiary of the project management plan .

Other outputs may include ：
-RFP form
- Supplier selection criteria
- Job description
- Make or buy decisions
- Change request form or process document
- Any risks added to the risk register and risk management plan

2、 Purchase

This is the implementation stage of project procurement management , Is in RFP Release 、 Bid collection and selection . Any supplier negotiations will take place at this stage , Then sign the agreed contract . Procurement also includes the actual receipt and payment of goods and services .

3、 Control purchasing

The key point of controlling or managing the procurement process is to monitor and control the project procurement , To ensure that all requirements are met . This process consists of two key steps ：
- Status or progress updates provided by the supplier
- Carry out quality inspection on the delivered products or services

The progress and cost monitoring of procurement is also part of this process . All changes and their impact on the overall project schedule and budget are monitored here . It is important to consider , If a piece of material will be two weeks late , How it will affect the rest of the project schedule ？

The role of the project manager

Unless you work for a small company , Otherwise, your company is likely to have a purchasing team . therefore , It is natural to ask them what their typical role is in project procurement management , And what is the responsibility of the project manager . The details will depend on your organization and your current purchasing role . Some companies' purchasing managers work with project managers , Responsible for most of these processes . In other cases , The procurement team may only be responsible for transactional tasks .

No matter what the purchasing management department of the company is , The following are the general guidelines for your responsibility as a project manager ：

Planning process ： As project manager , You don't create plans in isolation . This may require input from the entire project team , Including the procurement team 、 The legal team （ if there be ）, And any other relevant subject matter experts in the company . This may include estimates 、 financial 、 plan 、 Design or engineering 、 Operation, etc. .

Control purchasing ： The project manager usually does not purchase . However , It is still your responsibility to ensure that the purchase is properly executed . This means you need to know the status of your purchases . If something is late , You need to know how it affects your project schedule , And appropriately alleviate it .

If there is a conflict between department requirements , It's up to you .

Project procurement management solution

Procurement management is an extremely complex task . Incorrectly placed file 、 Unmonitored costs and slow approval cycles may ultimately impact projects or cost your business money . That's exactly what it is. 8Manage PM project management system Where you can really help .

○ Real time tracking

All purchase data will be fed back to the relevant budget 、 Real time reporting of progress and contractor performance —— This means that managers can be agile , And solve the problem as soon as possible before it becomes a bigger problem .

○ Automate workflow

Track purchase orders 、 Invoices and purchase requisitions , Both can pass 8Manage PM Software complete . Keeping this information on the system also ensures that you send it to the right people on time , And provide accurate information .

○360 Degree view

8Manage Providing everything from budget and quality standards to legal compliance information and deadlines 360 Degree view , Help you reduce the likelihood of potential problems . Every piece of information can be tracked through a dashboard , You can display the data in an easy to understand chart .

Arming yourself with the right tools will make procurement management easier .8Manage PM Put all this information in one platform , You can more easily manage multiple documents and workflows . All this while ensuring that the project runs smoothly from start to finish .