Manage Projects Involving 3rd Parties — A 2-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Course Synopsis

• Are you likely to manage projects that will employ 3rd party suppliers?
• Do you, as part of your project role, have day to day contact with 3rd party representatives?
• Are you less than 100% certain that you understand all of the issues when using 3rd party suppliers?
• Do you need some guidance on what steps to take in Procurement Management?
• Would you like a proven technique to use when selecting the correct 3rd party supplier?
• Are you unsure of all the planning issues and risks associated with 3rd party suppliers?
• Do you want to know what internal customer relations should be established?
• Are you uncomfortable when asked to influence or negotiate with 3rd party suppliers?
• Do you need advice on controlling projects involving 3rd parties?
• Would you like guidelines on the steps to take with 3rd party suppliers at project closedown?

If the answer is "YES" - this is the course for you!

You will explore the distinctive and unique project management issues that need to be addressed when 3rd parties are involved, and be shown recommended approaches to be adopted in order to handle them effectively.

The will be opportunities throughout the course to consider a case study scenario and practice the review of documents and plans, the choices to be made and the methods of control.

Course Objectives

On completion of this training course, delegates will be able to:

• Understand the unique isues when employing 3rd Party suppliers on a project
• Appreciate the steps involved in Procurement Management
• Select 3rd Party suppliers using a proven technique
• Establish appropriate internal customer relations
• Understand planning issues, key levers, and risks with 3rd Parties
• Influence, negotiate and when appropriate escalate
• Control projects involving 3rd Parties
• Carry out project closedown

In the Practical Workshops, students will gain:

• Practice at setting selection criteria for 3rd party suppliers and measuring applicants against them
• The chance to critique, both singly and as a group, sample plans submitted by suppliers and to recommend modifications and improvements
• An opportunity to role play a meeting with a supplier, where you may practice your influencing and negotiation skills
• Practice the preparation for, and attendance at, a review meeting with a sponsor where you may need to limit their expectations of 3rd party performance
• Gain feedback on your perceptions and efforts

Intended Audience

This course is intended for:

• Project Managers who will be managing projects involving one or more 3rd parties
• Senior project team members who will have day to day contact with key 3rd party representatives

Benefits for your Company

More and more organisations are using 3rd party suppliers to contribute to their projects. In some cases this occurs on a 'one off' basis, but more frequently under an 'umbrella' arrangement with one or more regular suppliers.

The rationale for this approach may vary, but often involves suppliers at the leading edge in technology or services. Managing such a situation can involve a number of very significant differences for the Project Manager when compared to the approach needed for a conventional 'in-house' project.

Managing Projects Involving 3rd Parties will enable management to understand the distinctive and unique project management issues that need to be addressed, and provides recommended approaches to be adopted in order to handle them effectively.

Benefits for You

It will give you a picture of the extra issues and risks that you will have to consider when 3rd parties are involved in the project for which you are a stakeholder. You can then ensure that you understand these issues, plan for them, monitor them, and control them, to the benefit of both parties and the completion of a successful project.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Outline Course Contents

Introduction & Welcome

There will be a brief introduction to the 2 days, and the administration for the course will be explained. You will then be introduced to the course objectives, which are to:

• improve people management skills
• understand the importance of inter-personal communications
• enjoy the event!

Initial Discussion

In this preliminary session, you will be asked to think about the starting point for projects that might involve the use of 3rd party suppliers.

Procurement Management

In this session we look at the steps that need to be gone through before any evaluation of would-be suppliers and their offers can begin.

Understanding the Systems Integration issues

You will be asked, in the workshop based session to consider the differences between conventional 'in-house' projects and those involving 3rd parties.

Working in teams you will put your views forward and the session is consolidated by a summary session that identifies the major difference.

Selecting 3rd party suppliers

Here you will be introduced to a formal and structured approach to the selection of 3rd party suppliers. This is a unique process involving weights and weighted scores, which is suggested as a way of ensuring that any selection is based on objective and meaningful criteria.

You will be presented with the first phase of the case study, by means of a background document, which identifies that external suppliers are to play a major part in the success of the project.

This first phase will require the selection of an external supplier from a shortlist of 3.

Sponsor meeting

You will now be asked to present your recommendations and justifications to the sponsor, who may have a different perspective of who the supplier should be.

Establishing customer relations

We now investigate the very real need for the project manager to recognise that they have to manage their customer in a very different way in a project that involves 3rd parties. We look at this need for a greater degree of formality, not as a bureaucratic nicety, but as a commercial necessity.

Influence and negotiation

Here we consider the situation where the project manager is managing 3rd parties. The issues involving external organisations and how to manage them are highlighted as a major consideration for project managers, and the conclusion that a position of influence exists, not control, which needs to be properly evaluated whenever negotiation is required.

Case Study phase 2

The case study now moves to its second phase where 3 external suppliers are now involved in the project. You will be requested to examine the plans that each have produced for their respective workloads, and to determine whether they are acceptable or not.

You will be asked, in teams, to review the plans from these external suppliers, and to comment on any modifications that you feel would be appropriate. We then turn our attention to the overall project plans and the lessons that can be learned from the case study situation.

Planning, Levers and risks

This session assumes that you are familiar with the broad principles and techniques of project planning we now look at the subtleties of dealing with 3rd parties and integrating any plans they provide into an overall plan.

We shall investigate a number of techniques and approaches that will enable the project manager to have a better understanding of the overall situation in their project.

Having had the opportunity to assess an updated plan from each of the external suppliers, you will now be asked to meet with one of the suppliers who appear to have an issue that may threaten the overall success of the project. How this meeting is approached and the attitude and posture that is adopted will have a major bearing on the outcome.

Control of 3rd Party projects

We now identify the different approaches that the project manager may need to consider in order to fully understand the true status of their project. This is a crucial aspect of the course because if we fail here establish the true status of the project it is likely to be critical to its long term success.

You will be introduced to techniques that will help the project manager keep abreast of the total situation.

You will now be presented with the latest status reports regarding project progress, and asked to prepare for a meeting with the project's sponsor. It may require a certain amount of tact and diplomacy to balance the expectations of the sponsor who wants to hear good news with, perhaps, the reality of the true current situation. You will be asked to decide how best to convey the latest project situation.

Project closedown

We now review the additional aspects that need to be considered when concluding a project involving 3rd parties. Aspects such as handover to production units, support and the handling of any subsequent changes need to be properly considered.

You will be introduced to a series of steps to ensure that projects are properly concluded and any contractual issues properly dealt with.

Course Review

The major lessons from the course are summarised and you will be asked to complete an assessment of the course and its arrangements.