Use These Eight Elements Within Your Procurement Plan

Use These Eight Elements Within Your Procurement Plan

There are many documents used in the procurement process. The Procurement Plan is a part of the overall Project Management Plan. The document describes how items will be procured during the project and the approach you will use to manage vendors on the project. Specific areas of the Plan include:

  • Purpose. Briefly describe the purpose of the project. This can be copied from the Charter. Some people may read this Procurement Plan without reading the Charter, so this section provides background and context to the reader.

  • Procurement Definition. Describe what will be procured, for what purpose, and under what conditions.

  • Procurement Responsibilities. Define who within your organization will participate in the procurement process and their responsibilities. This could be the buyers, the approvers, the investigators, the team members, the procurement specialists, the contract specialists, etc.

  • Decision Criteria. Define the process by which products and resources will be evaluated and selected. This could be a formal RFI, RFP, proposal evaluation process, etc. This could also be a longer or shorter process that is specific to this project.

  • Contract Type. Document types of contracts to be used and what actions need to be taken to initiate procurement. This can include fixed price, cost reimbursable, master agreements / statements of work, etc.

  • Contract Standards. Provide the contract standards that will need to be initiated and maintained for each contract. These will likely come from the Legal or Contracts group.

  • Ongoing Vendor Management. Describe steps the team will take to ensure that the vendor provides all products and/or services that were agreed upon, and how quality will be measured and maintained. This ongoing contract administration occurs throughout the project.

  • Project Procurement Plan Approval. List the individuals that need to approve this Plan. This may require a hard copy signature or some type of electronic approval.

The Procurement Plan is not required for all projects. However, if you have a large project with many procured elements, you should plan and frame the procurement approach with this Plan.