What is a procurement management plan in project management?
Short answer
A procurement management plan is the part of a project plan that says what the project will buy, how and when, under which contracts, and who manages the suppliers.
Key takeaways
- A procurement management plan belongs to one project. It lists what the project will buy rather than make, how each purchase will be competed, which contract type it will use, when it must start, and who manages the suppliers.
- In PMI’s PMBOK Guide, it is the main output of the Plan Procurement Management process, defined as documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach and identifying potential sellers.
- The sixth edition (2017) had three procurement processes: Plan Procurement Management, Conduct Procurements and Control Procurements. The seventh (2021) replaced processes with principles and performance domains. The eighth (2025) brings process guidance back.
- Its most useful part is the schedule: work back from the date each item is needed, subtract the buying and delivery lead time, and you get the date each purchase must start.
- It does not replace the organisation’s procurement policy. It applies that policy to one project and adds what is specific to it.
What is a procurement management plan?
A procurement management plan is a section of a project management plan. It sets out which goods and services the project will buy from outside suppliers, how each will be bought, under which type of contract, by when, and who will manage the suppliers until the contracts close.
Public bodies that run large IT projects describe it the same way. Washington State’s technology agency, WaTech, says the plan “defines how goods and services will be acquired to support the program or project” and sets the processes, roles, timelines and oversight for that buying.
A simple case. A distribution company starts a project to replace its warehouse management system. The project will need software, an implementation partner, handheld scanners, a Wi-Fi upgrade and temporary staff for go-live. The procurement management plan lists these five needs, decides which the company will do itself, chooses how to buy the rest, and shows when each purchase must start so that nothing arrives late.
What is Plan Procurement Management in the PMBOK Guide?
Plan Procurement Management is the first procurement process in PMI’s PMBOK Guide, sixth edition. It is described as the process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach and identifying potential sellers. Its main output is the procurement management plan, which becomes part of the project management plan.
In the sixth edition (2017), Project Procurement Management has three processes. Plan Procurement Management decides what to buy and how. Conduct Procurements obtains seller responses, selects a seller and awards a contract. Control Procurements manages the contracts, checks performance, makes changes and closes them. The fifth edition had a fourth process, Close Procurements. PMI folded it into Control Procurements and Close Project or Phase, noting that “few project managers have the authority to formally and legally close a contract.”
Study material for the sixth edition lists other outputs of Plan Procurement Management besides the plan. A buyer will recognise them from any competition:
- Procurement strategy
- For the project: how each purchase will be delivered, the contract payment type, and the phases of the procurement. Not the same as an organisation’s procurement strategy, which covers all buying over several years.
- Bid documents
- The requests sent to suppliers: a request for information, quotation or proposal.
- Procurement statement of work
- What the supplier must deliver, in enough detail for it to price and plan.
- Source selection criteria
- How offers will be evaluated: price, capability, approach, references, and their weights.
- Make-or-buy decisions
- For each need, whether the project team does the work itself or buys it, and why.
- Independent cost estimates
- The buyer’s own estimate of a fair price, used to judge the offers received.
| Edition | Year | Structure | Where procurement planning sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sixth | 2017 | 49 processes in 10 knowledge areas | Plan Procurement Management, Conduct Procurements, Control Procurements |
| Seventh | 2021 | 12 principles and 8 performance domains; no inputs and outputs | Procurement is part of the project work performance domain |
| Eighth | 2025 | 6 principles and 7 performance domains, with process guidance reintroduced | Process guidance is back; check the text for the procurement process names it uses |
The term “procurement management plan” comes from the process-based editions, but the need it answers did not change: a project still has to decide what it buys, how and when.
The seventh edition did not cancel the sixth. Ricardo Vargas, a former chair of PMI’s board, explained in 2021 that the sixth edition’s 49 processes remain a valid reference and that the seventh edition has no inputs, tools and techniques or outputs. The eighth edition (2025) keeps principles and performance domains (governance, scope, schedule, finance, stakeholders, resources and risk) and brings process guidance back. Check the edition your exam, client or organisation uses before quoting process names.
What does a procurement management plan contain?
Templates differ in layout but ask the same questions. The table combines the sections of the California Department of Technology’s template with the contents listed in PMBOK-based teaching material.
| Section | Question it answers | Example from the warehouse project |
|---|---|---|
| Procurement scope and make-or-buy | What will we buy, and what will we do ourselves? | Buy the software, partner, scanners, Wi-Fi and temporary staff; migrate data in-house |
| Roles and responsibilities | Who decides, who runs each competition, who signs? | Project manager owns the plan; the IT category buyer runs the tenders; the CFO signs above €250,000 |
| Procurement route and documents | RFQ, RFP, framework call-off or direct award, under which rules? | RFP for the software and partner; RFQ for scanners and Wi-Fi; call-off from the staffing framework |
| Contract types | Fixed price, cost-reimbursable or time and materials? | Fixed price for implementation; time and materials for temporary staff |
| Selection criteria and cost estimates | How will offers be scored, and what price do we expect? | Software: 50% solution, 30% price, 20% partner; internal estimate before the RFP opens |
| Schedule and lead times | When must each purchase start so it arrives on time? | See the worked example below |
| Risks, constraints and assumptions | What could go wrong, and what are we taking as given? | Scanner delivery delays; performance bond on the implementation partner; budget fixed for the year |
| Supplier management and metrics | How will we manage suppliers and measure their performance? | Weekly status with the partner; acceptance tests before each payment |
| Closure | How is each contract closed and the records kept? | Final acceptance, last invoice, supplier evaluation, file archived |
If one section can only be filled with “to be decided”, that decision is a project risk: give it an owner and a date.
The plan applies the organisation’s rules; it does not rewrite them. Thresholds, approval limits and the routes allowed come from the procurement policy. The steps each purchase then follows are those of the procurement process.
How do you write a procurement management plan?
- List the needs. Go through the project scope and schedule and list every item, service or skill the project uses that the team does not already have.
- Decide make or buy for each. Compare cost, skills, time and risk. Write down the reason, because someone will ask later.
- Check what already exists. Before planning a new competition, look for an existing contract, framework or blanket purchase order that covers the need.
- Choose the route and contract type. Apply the thresholds in the procurement policy: a quote, a tender, a call-off. Pick the contract type that puts each risk on the party best able to manage it.
- Set the dates. For each purchase, take the date the project needs it, subtract the competition time and the delivery time, and record the date the purchase must start.
- Name the people. For each purchase, who writes the specification, who runs the competition, who evaluates and who approves.
- Record risks and assumptions. Long lead times, few suppliers, currency, bonds and insurance, and any assumption the plan relies on.
- Get it approved and keep it current. The sponsor and procurement sign it off; it is updated when scope, budget or dates change.
Bring the procurement team in at step one, not at step five. A project manager who discovers in month three that the software purchase needs a four-month public tender has already lost the go-live date.
What does a procurement management plan look like? A worked example
The warehouse project plans go-live in week 52. Each purchase is placed on the project schedule by working back from the week it is needed. Lead time includes preparing the request, supplier response time, evaluation, contract signature and delivery. All names and figures are fictional.
| Need | Make or buy | Route | Contract type | Needed by (week) | Lead time (weeks) | Start buying by (week) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouse software and implementation partner | Buy | RFP | Fixed price, paid at milestones | 20 | 16 | 4 |
| Wi-Fi upgrade in the warehouse | Buy | RFQ | Fixed price | 36 | 14 | 22 |
| 200 handheld scanners | Buy | RFQ | Fixed price | 40 | 16 | 24 |
| Temporary staff for go-live | Buy | Call-off from the staffing framework | Time and materials | 50 | 4 | 46 |
| Data migration | Make | None: internal team knows the old system | None | 44 | None | None |
The first deadline is week 4: the software RFP must start almost as soon as the project does, so it sets the pace for the whole plan.
Each start date is the week needed minus the lead time. The software is needed in week 20 and its RFP takes about 16 weeks (4 to prepare, 4 for responses, 4 to evaluate, 4 to negotiate and sign), so it must start in week 4. The scanners need 6 weeks for the RFQ and 10 for delivery, so they must be ordered from week 24. If any lead time grows, the plan shows at once which project date moves with it.
For a software purchase like the one in week 4, the steps of the competition are set out in the software procurement process, and the request itself in the RFP process.
Which contract types does a procurement management plan choose between?
Project management teaching uses three families of contract. The choice depends on how well the work can be defined before signature: the clearer the scope, the more cost risk the supplier can accept at a fixed price.
| Contract type | How the supplier is paid | Who carries the cost risk | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed price | One agreed price for the defined work, sometimes in milestones | Mostly the supplier | The scope is clear and stable: a Wi-Fi installation, 200 scanners |
| Cost-reimbursable (cost plus) | The supplier’s costs plus a fee or rate | Mostly the buyer | The work cannot be defined in advance: research, early design |
| Time and materials | An hourly or daily rate for time spent, plus materials | Mostly the buyer, because the hours are not fixed; a cap limits it | Small or open-ended work: temporary staff, support hours |
The less you can define the work, the more cost risk you keep; reduce it with a cap, milestones or a short first phase.
How is a procurement management plan different from other procurement documents?
The plan is about one project; most other procurement documents are about the whole organisation.
| Document | Scope | Question it answers | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Procurement management plan | One project, for its life | What will this project buy, how and when? | The project manager, with procurement |
| Procurement policy | The whole organisation, until revised | Which rules does every purchase follow? | The head of procurement, approved by the board |
| Procurement strategy | The whole organisation, several years | Where is our buying going, and why? | The head of procurement |
| Annual procurement plan | The whole organisation, one year | Which purchases start this year? | Procurement, with budget holders |
A large project’s plan feeds the organisation’s annual list of purchases; it does not replace it.
How the procurement function as a whole is run is explained in what is procurement management. A guide to the organisation’s annual procurement plan is in preparation.
Where can you find a procurement management plan template?
Two US state technology agencies publish free templates for their IT projects, and both are usable outside government. The California Department of Technology’s Project Management Framework (CA-PMF) offers a template shell with sections for workflows, tools, roles, procurement scope, contract type, procurement risk, cost determination, procurement documents, constraints and assumptions, and vendor management. WaTech, in Washington State, offers a procurement management plan template as part of its IT project resources.
A template gives the headings, not the decisions. The value of the plan is in the make-or-buy reasons, the routes chosen and the start dates.
Questions
Who writes the procurement management plan?
The project manager owns it, but writes it with the procurement or contracting team. The project manager knows what the project needs and when; procurement knows the routes, thresholds, lead times and suppliers. On large projects, a procurement lead may be named in the project team to write and run it. The project sponsor approves it.
Is a procurement management plan the same as a procurement plan?
Not quite. A procurement management plan covers one project: what it will buy, how, when and under which contracts. An organisation’s procurement plan usually lists all the purchases it expects to start in a year. The words overlap, and some projects call their own document a project procurement plan; check which one is meant.
Is the procurement management plan still in the PMBOK Guide?
Plan Procurement Management and its output, the procurement management plan, are defined in the sixth edition (2017). The seventh edition (2021) replaced processes with principles and performance domains and no longer lists inputs and outputs. The eighth edition (2025) brings process guidance back. The sixth edition’s processes remain the common reference in study material.
How long is a procurement management plan?
As long as the project’s buying needs. For a small project with two purchases, two pages and one table can be enough. A large public project with many contracts may need a longer document with a schedule per contract. The length matters less than having a route, a contract type, an owner and a start date for every purchase.
What is the difference between a procurement management plan and a procurement strategy?
In the PMBOK Guide sixth edition, the procurement strategy is a separate output of Plan Procurement Management: for the project, it sets the delivery method, contract payment type and procurement phases. An organisation’s procurement strategy is different again: it sets the direction for all buying over several years. The project’s plan should follow the organisation’s strategy.
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