PMP lesson · Procurement · Procurement · lesson 2 of 2 · about 8 minutes
Procurement: plan, conduct, control and claims
Predictive · hybridFree preview
Goal: After this lesson you can describe the procurement steps in order, choose between RFI, RFP and RFQ, run a fair selection, and handle a claim correctly.
1The situation
Buying the guarding
The robot cell needs perimeter guarding. Should your shop build it, or should you buy it? If you buy, how do you choose a supplier fairly? And what happens when, halfway through, the supplier says: “Your drawings were unclear; we want $8,000 more”?
Procurement is a process with three parts: plan what to buy and how, conduct the selection, and control the contract until it is closed. Each part has classic exam traps.
2Plan: make or buy?
The first decision: do it ourselves or buy it? A make-or-buy analysis compares the total costs, then considers capacity, skills, risk, quality and confidentiality.
Buy
Buy = price × quantity
Simple, but you depend on the supplier.
Make
Make = one-time investment + unit cost × quantity
Don't forget the one-time costs (tooling, training).
If you buy, write a clear statement of work (SOW): the work, deliverables and acceptance criteria. Unclear SOWs cause most claims.
3The three procurement steps
1 · Plan procurement
Make-or-buy analysis · contract type · statement of work (SOW) · selection criteria · RFI / RFP / RFQ
2 · Conduct procurement
Bidder conference (same answers to everyone) · evaluate proposals against the criteria · negotiate · award the contract
3 · Control procurement
Monitor performance · inspections and audits · approve payments · manage changes and claims · close the contract
Plan → conduct → control. Each step produces documents used in the next.
4How it looks on the exam
Exam-style question 1. During contract execution, a seller submits a claim for additional payment, arguing that the statement of work was ambiguous. Relations remain good. What should the project manager do FIRST?
A. Refer the claim to litigation
B. Follow the contract's claims procedure, starting with negotiation
C. Reject the claim, since the contract is fixed price
D. Pay the claim to protect the relationship
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
The seller asks for more money because the contract was unclear.
What is the question really asking?
The first step.
Key words / trigger
“submits a claim … ambiguous”
PMP logic
Claims are handled per the contract; negotiation is the preferred first method.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
Rejecting it feels like protecting the budget, but an ambiguous SOW may make the claim valid.
5Remember this
Your memory card
Plan → conduct → control; make-or-buy compares total costs
RFI = learn the market · RFP = ask for solutions · RFQ = ask for prices
Fair selection: published criteria, bidder conference, same answers to all
Claims: follow the contract, negotiate first; close only after claims are settled
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
the rest of the lesson (Conduct: select fairly, Control: manage the contract)