Project Procurement Management Plan for the E-mail Upgrade Project

Project Procurement Management Plan for Email Upgrade Project
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Project procurement management entails obtaining or purchasing goods or services to implement an organizational endeavor successfully. It delineates the collaborative connections between the firm and the external vendors while obtaining or purchasing the products or services. The procurement management plan delineates the procurement model for the email upgrade project. It serves as a guide for managing the procurement process through the project life and would be updated per the changes in acquisition needs. This paper establishes the procurement management process, contract planning or individual deliverables, the statement of work, the contract types, and the evaluation criteria for the email upgrade project.
Overview
This project will combine traditional and agile project management techniques to create a unique project that suits the organizational needs. The combination of both approaches is the hybrid approach to project management (Reiff & Schlegel, 2022). The project manager will use a hybrid approach because the project requires both technical upgrades and procurement activities that can use different management methods. The project activities will be transparent to attain the best value for the project. For instance, the project manager will publicly announce a vacancy for the email upgrade tender to ensure that all suitable companies apply. Afterward, all candidate's documents will be reviewed for validity and scheduled for an interview. While performing the project management activities, the project manager will utilize the existing challenges in the organization to make a positive out of them. For instance, it will be feasible to consider the financial constraint of the organization to select the most favorable vendor.
Contract Planning
Statement of Work (SOW)
This project aims to examine the viability and the cost associated with upgrading the email system in the Ohio Department of Human Services (ODHS) from version 7.0 to version 9.0 since version 7.0 will no longer be supported by the vendor Worldview Upgrades as of next year. The project objective revolves around implementing the project plan, given its importance in communicating with over 15000 employees throughout Ohio's 88 counties. Therefore, my SOW will help define the deliverables and the effort for the email upgrade. A SOW is usually used to make a narrative description of what will be supplied under a contract (Project Management Institute, 2023).
Project deliverables and Scope
* Understanding the technical requirements of the upgraded email system, including both the hardware and the software
* Having robust vendor selection criteria
* Having a detailed implementation plan
* Understanding the contract awards and choosing the most appropriate
* Testing of the implemented system
* User training and documentation plan
* Have ongoing support and maintenance of the new system in case of failures.
Assumptions
* The organizational requirements are followed keenly
* The upgraded email software will take less than six months before implementation before the end of this year
* Any bias will not influence the vendor selection process
Types of contracts
Fixed price contract
A fixed-price contract can be defined as a contract with a well-defined scope of work with a set price (Maurya, 2018). This kind of contract agrees with the vendor that the project must be completed at a particular price, regardless of the actual cost of performing the entire work. This is to state that when the vendor enters into a fixed-price contract, they agree to the final cost of the service upfront. The fixed price contract is most suitable if the project's complexity is low and there are few economic uncertainties (Maurya, 2018). Given that ODHS is facing a financial challenge, this type of contract would be the most appropriate. The contract also has several advantages and disadvantages that need to be examined.
Advantages
* One of the significant advantages of this type of contract is that it reduces the administrative burden for the buyer, as they do not need to track the costs or negotiate the price changes (BuildQ Group, 2021).
* The fixed-budget contract may benefit the buyer if there is a market change in the industries, making the price of goods go high. This can disadvantage the seller as it may lead to a potential loss.
* It can also be advantageous because it encourages the vendors to work on time and within the posited budget (BuildQ Group, 2021).
Disadvantages
* The agent receives a fixed payment and receives no
* payment related to operational results
* The fixed price contract may lead to lower quality work, especially when the agent is fixed on matters of cost, and they have to meet the fixed price.
* It can be expensive in the long run, as workers may increase the contingency cost (BuildQ Group, 2021).
* The contract can also limit flexibility, especially when the scope is likely to change
Time and Materials Contract
In this contract, the vendor charges the buyer for the time and materials needed to complete the work. It is majorly used when the exact time, cost, and rigidity of the completion of the project are unknown (Contracts Counsel, 2023).
Advantages
* The contract offers flexibility regarding the change of the work scope and any other additional work that may benefit the project.
* It allows the vendor to cap the number of hours the buyer can utilize to reduce the workers that drag the work to make more money (Contracts Counsel, 2023).
* It encourages the buyers to focus on the quality rather than rushing to complete the work.
Disadvantages
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