Contracting strategy, development and management

Introduction

This intensive five-day course is designed to guide procurement and project professionals through the critical stages of developing and managing effective contracting strategies. Participants will learn to match contract types to procurement categories, develop scopes of work, evaluate vendors, and manage contracts through to execution and closeout. Emphasis is placed on practical tools, case-based learning, and aligning strategies with complexity and urgency in project environments

This course will feature:

• Tools for selecting contract strategies aligned with project needs
• Writing scopes of work that reduce risk and ensure clarity
• Designing robust commercial and technical evaluations
• Qualifying and selecting vendors according to project and performance criteria
• Managing contract risks, negotiations, and performance

Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design appropriate contracting strategies based on project characteristics
• Draft effective scopes of work and evaluation criteria
• Conduct vendor qualification aligned with project needs
• Apply best practices in contract negotiation and risk allocation
• Manage contract execution and closeout for better performance outcomes

Contents

Day One

• Contract types: fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, incentive-based, and hybrid
• Procurement categorization: strategic, leverage, routine, and bottleneck items
• Mapping complexity and urgency to appropriate contracting strategies
• Contracting routes: traditional, EPC, design-build, PPP, and framework agreements
• Strategic sourcing and early supplier involvement
• Case examples: Choosing contract models under different scenarios

Day Two

• Writing a clear and complete Scope of Work (SoW)
• Defining technical specifications vs performance outputs
• Developing commercial evaluation elements: pricing structure, payment terms
• Evaluation criteria and weighting methods
• Alignment between scope, deliverables, and evaluation
• Workshop: Draft a SoW and evaluation matrix for a sample project

Day Three

• Qualification vs selection: understanding the difference
• Vendor prequalification criteria: financial, technical, legal, HSE
• Developing qualification documents and scorecards
• Alignment of vendor capabilities with project risk and complexity
• Due diligence, site visits, and reference checks
• Workshop: Simulated vendor qualification and scoring process

Day Four

• Steps in the award process: internal and external approvals
• Contract negotiation strategies: distributive vs integrative approaches
• Key negotiation clauses: indemnities, liabilities, warranties, limitations
• Risk allocation principles in contracts
• Contract finalization and communication to stakeholders
• Role play: Negotiating a sample contract

Day Five

• Mobilization: kickoff meetings and transition plans
• Contract administration: compliance, reporting, and monitoring
• Managing variations, claims, and disputes
• Contractor performance evaluation and relationship management
• Contract closeout: final payments, documentation, and lessons learned
• Group activity: Contract review case study and final course wrap-up