PPMP20011 Contract And Procurement Management Method

Description of topics including reading samples

Learning outcomes of the unit

Learnings from your experience, this and prior unit reading, assignments

Supporting documentation including your prior learning

Week 3 Topic: The Role of the Project Manager in Commercial Negotiation.

Collaborative Project Procurement Arrangements (2015) by Derek H. T. Walker and Beverly M. Lloyd Walker;

3. Differentiate methods of project negotiation, conflict management, and stakeholder engagement across projects consisting of differing technology standards and asset lifecycles.

The project manager plays significant role in the negotiation of the project. The various negotiation strategies implemented by the manager includes Principled negotiation in which different parties create an agreement such that both the parties are satisfied with the current status, positional bargaining which can be characterized by a pie chart, in which each party tends to have the highest benefits which occurs due to lack of trust, the project manager negotiates such cases and to a common objective, compromising style, collaborating style in which the stakeholders collaborate significantly so as to arrive to a particular objective. The manager also handles conflicting conditions by setting a common objective (Savolainen & Ahonen, 2015). He also manages the asset life cycle by controlling and monitoring the actions and taking suitable decisions. The project manager can also manage the stakeholder’s engagement through a candid and respectful conversation.

Savolainen, P., & Ahonen, J. J. (2015). Knowledge lost: Challenges in changing project manager between sales and implementation in software projects. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 92-102.

Are any of the activities above relevant to your reflections for the learning outcomes on the right?

4. Explain and apply methods of identifying and reconciling inconsistent and conflicting objectives and drivers that develop, maintain, mange relationships and communication with key stakeholders.

The project manager deals with conflicting and inconsistent objective within the various stakeholders by applying the methods of negotiation such as compromising techniques, collaborating techniques. Moreover, the project manager has to manage relationship and proper communication with the stakeholders (Davis, 2014). There are numerous ways of managing an effective communication with the stakeholders such as ambiguity reduction, confrontations, assertiveness, letting other people to speak and having a non verbal communication system that enables the stakeholders to communicate properly.  The project ensures to have a respectful and candid conversation with the stakeholders that offers them the opportunity to share their knowledge and thoughts. The conflict management can be done by carefully listening to the conflicts and objectives of the stakeholders as they are equally important in the completion and successful execution of the project.

Davis, K. (2014). Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), 189-201.

Are any of the activities above relevant to your reflections for the learning outcomes on the right?

5. Explain the consequences of project delays, disruptions, and changes to planned activities and the methods for claims variations, liquidated damages, contract entitlements, and arbitration.

The delay in the construction of the Channel tunnel had devastating effects and the project led to a failure. There were cost overruns of about US$1.6 billion. These cost overruns incorporated the time delay due to lack of proper planning and such erroneous planning lead to the increase of about US$2.25 billion overheads cost (Islam et al., 2015). Moreover, change in design of the plan also caused delay such as introduction of the air conditioning system as well as the widening of the doors. However, no proper planning was implemented prior to the initiation of the project. Moreover, no actual investors were involved in the construction of the project.  

Islam, M. S., Trigunarsyah, B., Hassanain, M., & Assaf, S. (2015, October). Causes of delay in construction projects in Bangladesh. In The 6th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management, Busan, Korea (pp. 82-86).

Are any of the activities above relevant to your reflections for the learning outcomes on the right?

6. Evaluate project management tools that help avoid or provide conflict resolution via negotiated solutions.

There are numerous project management tools that help the manger to manage the progress of the project namely, project scheduling, gantt chart, project tracking and project reporting. The project manager often utilizes the compromise technique to resolve the conflicts by using the collaboration and compromise technique. The manager often focuses on the quick removal of any existing conflicts through negotiated solutions as having inconsistent objective often leads to conflict among the stakeholders (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). It also leads to the delay in the completion of the project. In addition to the delay, the cost and time overruns are also incorporated thus, the manager holds meetings at regular intervals with the stakeholders so as to resolve the conflicts.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.