4.5. Plan and Manage Procurement
💡 First Principle: Procurement decisions (contract type, vendor selection, negotiation posture) shift risk between buyer and seller — the exam tests whether you can match contract type and negotiation strategy to the actual risk profile of the work being procured.
Enablers: plan procurement, execute the procurement management plan, select preferred contract types, evaluate vendor performance, verify procurement-agreement objectives are met, participate in agreement negotiations, determine a negotiation strategy, manage suppliers and contracts, plan and manage the procurement strategy, and develop a delivery solution.
Contract-type selection is a classic tested trade-off: fixed-price contracts push cost-overrun risk onto the seller (good for well-defined scope), while cost-reimbursable contracts push risk onto the buyer (appropriate when scope is still evolving or uncertain) — time-and-materials sits in between, suited to smaller, less-defined efforts.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Defaulting to fixed-price as the "safest" contract type regardless of scope certainty. When scope is genuinely not well-defined, a fixed-price contract just pushes the seller to pad estimates or cut corners — cost-reimbursable or T&M can be the better-scoring answer.
Reflection Question: Describe a procurement decision where the contract type didn't match the actual risk profile of the work. What went wrong, and which contract type would have fit better?
