Project, procurement, and contract management

Learning objectives

• Write a scope of work and use a change-order process to control scope creep.
• Read a Gantt chart and find a project's critical path and float.
• Distinguish RFQs, RFPs, and invitations for bids, and explain qualifications-based selection.
• Choose an appropriate contract type and manage a consultant effectively.
• Describe quality assurance and quality control for planning deliverables.
• Identify and respond to project risks, and track cost and schedule with earned value.
• Manage external relationships through memoranda of understanding and intergovernmental agreements.

Key concepts

The project lifecycle

Planning work, from a corridor study to a code rewrite, is project work. Most projects move through five phases: initiation (why are we doing this?), planning (scope, schedule, budget, team), execution, monitoring and control (tracking progress and adjusting), and closing (final deliverables, lessons learned).

9 more sections follow in the full lesson.