First, Let’s Clarify a Few Terms

For the sake of clarity and brevity, let’s review a few terms and touch on the focus. By vendor, I mean the seller organization—the organization that is contracted to provide product or services. I generally refer to the client organization—the organization purchasing the services—as the buyer. The use of buyer and seller terms here is consistent with the current PMI standards on procurement management.

In addition, we focus on arrangements that involve the outsourcing of entire projects, project phases, or specific project deliverables to external entities. Thus, this excludes “staff augmentation” arrangements where a vendor is contracted to provide a resource to fill a role on your project team.

With these clarifications, we’re now ready to take a look at the principles that provide the foundation for effective management of the buyer-seller project relationship.