The information technology (IT) department within my company uses Requests for Proposals (RFP) when obtaining products or services from vendors outside of the organization. A RFP is a “type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services” (Project Management Institute, 2004, p. 371). Although the IT department uses RFPs as part of its standard procurement approach, my company can improve its approach by incorporating RFP best practices into its standard process.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Contracts in Project Management
Procurement and project management have many integrated relationships, one of which is controlling procurement risk through the use of contracts. In an article written by John Kavanagh, the author describes a speech delivered to the British Computer Society by BCS fellow and vice president Rachel Burnett where she positioned contracts as an investment as opposed to an expensive list of restrictions. By investing the time to develop clear contracts, both the buyer and the seller can control risk and reduce the need to use litigation to resolve disagreements.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Managing Project Procurement
The information technology (IT) department at my company follows a structured approach to managing infrastructure projects. Infrastructure projects include the installation of a network, telephone system, office equipment, file servers and audio/visual equipment. Most of the products and services needed to complete the projects are purchased from sources outside the company. To ensure consistency across projects, the IT department follows a standard procurement process for each project.
The procurement process includes “all of the activities that are required to obtain the goods and services required for a project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The primary objective of the procurement process is to “obtain the goods and services in accordance with the technical, quality, schedule, and cost objectives of the project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The procurement process can be broken into six basic steps:
The procurement process includes “all of the activities that are required to obtain the goods and services required for a project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The primary objective of the procurement process is to “obtain the goods and services in accordance with the technical, quality, schedule, and cost objectives of the project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The procurement process can be broken into six basic steps:
