Procurement management is the processes to purchase or acquire the products, services or results needed from outside the project team to perform the work. Project Procurement Management involves not just purchasing products, services or results, but also ensuring that those that are purchased are right for the project, meets standards and is based on project requirements. This life cycle includes tracking from order through deployment and completing with invoice reconciliation.
All projects are defined by the purpose, objectives and deliverables. Properly defining these, as well as the other aspects of the project management plan will allow you to properly define the resources needed to successfully execute the project. Deliverables can take many forms. Hardware and software as well as services such as consulting can be deliverables. Each of these should be identified, and a determination needs to be made by the project team as to what the most effective method of obtaining the required resources. Once the initial interviews and requirements begin to be gathered, the Project Manager starts to evaluate the impact of the information gathered on the other knowledge areas in order to facilitate the planning processes. This process is continuously applied throughout the project, constantly evaluating the requirements of the project against the work being performed, using your Project Management Plan as verification. The Purchase process is the execution of the agreed upon strategy. This includes the creation of the Purchase Order as well as the requesting of internal resource, for example Material Handling, Data Techs, etc. Contract Administration is the formal process for controlling the delivery, deployment and reconciliation of the products or services that have been identified and purchased. The Procurement Plan is the formal documentation of the entire procurement process. Once the Procurement Plan is defined and agreed upon, any changes to the Scope require...