The Path to the PMP (Part 12)

Following 20 years at a large Canadian telecommunications firm, Bruce established the project management consulting firm Solutions Management Inc (SMI). Since 1999, he has provided contract project/program management services, been a source for project management support personnel and created/delivered courses to over 7,000 participants in Canada, the United States and England.

  Procurement Management   Using PMI Standards  

In one way, this article is a finale. In another it’s the beginning. As we’ve made our way through the PMBOK 4^th edition together, we have taken a somewhat light-hearted approach to digesting the content that needs to be understood to be successful in the PMP certification exam. It’s challenging, to say the least, to read a methodology; even more so when trying to catch the nuances that will tested.

For those that have added my articles to your studying regime, you should be proud and excited that you have reached the final chapter. The final opportunity to write the exam based on the 4^th edition PMBOK has passed, but these articles absolutely still apply. If the exam writer will be writing based on the 5^th edition PMBOK reading the 12 articles will still be valuable. The small changes in the PMBOK 5^th edition will be addressed in a subsequent article.

I find the Project Procurement Management knowledge area often causes stress to participants that I coach or deliver boot camps with. They often work in organizations where external goods and services are acquired through a separate department and/or really don’t like the idea of negotiating and agreeing to contracts. To those people, I say simply look at the process as if they were hiring a contractor to do work at their homes. They would need to make a decision regarding what work is best done…

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