Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?

12. Project Procurement Management

In this post, we are going to focus on the

Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?
importance of project procurement management and the increasing use of outsourcing for information technology projects. The term procurement means acquiring goods and/or services from an outside source. There are different ideas about outsourcing. Some companies, such as Wal-Mart, prefer to do no outsourcing at all, while others do a lot of outsourcing. But why do companies outsource? There are different reasons among which we may rank:
a) To reduce both fixed and recurrent costs,
b) To allow the client organization to focus on its core business,
c) To access skills and technologies,
d) To provide flexibility,
e) To increase accountability.
The main key of outsourcing is the contract, which is a mutually binding agreement that obligates the seller to provide the specified products or services and obligates the buyer to pay for them.
Project procurement management means acquiring goods and services for a project from outside the performing organization. Processes involved in this include:
Planning Purchases and Acquisitions: includes identifying which project needs can best be met by using products or services outside the organization.
Planning Contracting: Involves preparing several documents needed for potential sellers to prepare their responses and determining the evaluation criteria for the contract award. Two are the main documents involved in this process:
i) Request for Proposals: which is a document prepared by a seller when there are different approaches for meeting buyer needs. And secondly,
ii)Requests for Quotes: which is a document prepared by sellers providing pricing for standard items that have been clearly defined by the buyer.
Requesting Seller Responses: is the process of deciding whom to ask to do the work, sending appropriate documentation to potential sellers, and obtaining proposals or bids.
Selecting Sellers: This process is also known as source selection.
Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?
It includes choosing from among potential suppliers through a process of evaluating potential sellers and negotiating the contract. A sample of "Proposal Evaluation Sheet" is shown in the picture on the left.
Administering the Contract: Ensures that the seller’s performance meets contractual requirements. It is critical that project managers and team members watch for constructive change orders, which are oral or written acts or omissions by someone with actual or apparent authority that can be construed to have the same effect as a written change order. And lastly,
Closing the Contract: This involves completing and settling contracts and resolving any open items.
The project team should:
a) Determine if all work was completed correctly and satisfactorily
b) Update records to reflect final results
c) Archive information for future use
d) The contract itself should include requirements for formal acceptance and closure

02. The Project Management and Information Technology Context

Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?

Project Management can be thought as an approach to describe management and problem solving. It includes three parts: 1. System philosophy - a model of thinking about things as systems, 2. System analysis - a problem solving approach, and 3. System management - addressing issues before making changes to systems. To select if to undertake a project or not, project managers must take into consideration the three sphere model which includes analyzing: business, organization and technology (as shown in the picture). Business is concerned with questions like; what will the project cost to the company? What impact it will have? What is going to be the support cost and so on. The organization sphere concerns about: Who will be affected by the project? Who will train the staff and so on. And lastly, the technology sphere is concerned about the issues like: What devices will be used? What operating system? How the system will be accessed and other questions similar to these. 2.1 UNDERSTANDIN

10. Project Communications Management

Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?

We talked about human resource management on the last part. Of course that if we want to have a good relationship among employees and managers, the most important thing is to have good communication. And so, we come to the other knowledge area that is; Project Communications Management. Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for IT professionals. Project communication management includes the following processes; Communications Planning: Communications planning means determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders. Every project should include some type of communications management plan. Communication management plan is a document that guides project communications. A very important document in this process is a stakeholder analysis. it describes the characteristics of the stakeholders which helps project managers on how to deal with them. An example for a stakeholder analysis for project communications is shown in the picture for further

11. Project Risk Management

Which of the following means acquiring goods and or services from an outside source?

Do project managers understand what risk is and the importance of good project risk management? Risk management is often overlooked in projects, but it can help improve project success by helping select good projects, determining project scope, and developing realistic estimates. There exists mainly two types of risks. Positive and negative risks. Negative risk involves understanding potential problems that might occur in the project and how they might impede project success. Negative risk management is like a form of insurance; it is an investment. Beside this, positive risks are risks that result in good things happening; sometimes called opportunities. Project Risk Management Processes : 1 - Risk Management Planning: deciding how to approach and plan the risk management activities for the project. The main output of risk management planning is a risk management plan —a plan that documents the procedures for managing risk throughout a project.The project team should review project