SFIA Contract management ITCM

This page provides deep dive guidance and additional material to help individuals and organisations use and apply this SFIA skill effectively. It supplements the SFIA reference material.

SFIA v6 definition of Contract management

The overall management and control of the operation of formal contracts for supply of products and services.

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• Does not apply to roles who are partaking in supplier review activities e.g. providing input to supplier performance. This skill should be reserved for those roles which operate, review, improve the performance of contracts. It generally kicks in once the procurement/sourcing process has completed.
• Depending on the organisation and job design; this skill may be used in specialist Procurement roles and also Operational supplier manager roles.
• It has a narrow range and operates at mid to high levels only (SFIA level 4 to level 6)
• The skill does not reflect a technical skill; and although clearly related to and vital for Technology organisations it may well be located in a centre of excellence, organisation wide Procurement function

If you are looking for skills relating to:

• policy, standards and advice on procurement of products and services; try SFIA Sourcing SORC
• the management of supplier relationships; try SFIA Relationship management or SFIAv5 Supplier management
• governance of operational IT; try SFIA IT management
• strategies and governance for IT Service Management; try SFIA Service level management SLMO
• overall financial management and control of IT assets and resources used in the provision of IT services; try SFIA Financial management

• The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply - global organisation serving the procurement and supply profession
• https://www.cips.org/documents/CIPS_KI_Contract%20Management%20Guidev2.pdf - CIPS Contract Management Guide v2
• The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management - enables organizations and professionals to achieve world-class standards in their contracting and relationship management process and skills.
• CobIT (Control Objectives for IT) specifically process called APO10 Manage Suppliers
• Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) - Project Procurement Management

Books

• Excellence in Supplier Management - How to Better Manage Contracts with Suppliers and Add Value

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• Service Operations
• Service Management
• Procurement ¹⁾

By focussing on work outputs/work products we can move the focus from activity/knowledge to performance and provide a direct link to business results. See 6 boxes model.

Leading

• senior stakeholder relationships and relationship management plan
• organisational model for the execution of contract management
• sufficient resources and capability to enact contract management processes
• executive commitment to contract management strategies and plans
• thought leadership with respect to contract management

Managing

• contract management methodology/templates describing good practice
• supplier dashboards for measuring and managing performance
• agreed KPIs
• decision-making processes
• effective meetings and meeting structures
• plans for improving contract management capability
• contract management tools, processes and standards
• supplier service improvement actions and programmes
• capable, effective teams to support contract management
• clear roles and responsibilities for contract management
• Service level agreements (SLAs)
• Operational level agreements (OLAs)

Doing

• contract performance data
• documents to support contract management processes - decisions, issues, actions, risks
• escalated issues and risks
• formal, informal, ad-hoc communication between organisation and suppliers
• assessment of compliance with contractual obligations
• impact analysis of changes to contracts
• renegotiated contracts
• agreed actions to remedy non-compliance
• application on contract terms to address under-performance or non-compliance
• ideas to improve contract performance
• improved contract management processes and tools, templates
• up to date market and commercial knowledge
• supplier benchmarking
• sourcing knowledgebase