A one-day workshop
This very practical and focused one-day workshop enables end-users, technical experts, proponents, internal customers and other key stakeholders to work with procurement and contracting to develop effective specifications and scopes of work, to ensure fit-for-purpose outcomes. The programme empowers participants to collaborate with all key stakeholders.
- Understand the importance and value of clear and effective specifications
- Differentiate between the different methods of creating specifications and when to apply them
- Develop robust specification templates to ensure consistency
- Understand the use of appropriate language (critical to creating effective specifications)
- Appreciate the need to develop specifications in cooperation with stakeholders
- Make use of techniques such as value analysis and value engineering to define ‘fit for purpose’ in the context of creating effective specifications
- Embed key KPIs into the specification to ensure delivery
- Manage and mitigate legal and contractual risks in the specification
Expert trainer
Dr Ray Carter runs his own international training and development consultancy, specialising in procurement. A prolific author, his fourth book, Practical Contract Management, with Steve Kirby and Alan Oxenbury, was published in 2012. He has also had numerous articles and papers published in journals such as Supply Management and the Centre for Advanced Procurement’s Praxis publication.
Session outline
1. Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- Learning styles
- Plan for the day
2. The importance of effective specifications
- Scopes of work
- Impact of poor scopes of work
- Examples of costly errors
3. The critical role of language
- Terminology in creating effective specifications and scopes of work
- Problems of communication
- Lack of detail or too prescriptive
4. Encouraging cooperation
- Technical and commercial experts with responsibility for developing robust effective specifications and scopes of work
- Managing stakeholders’ expectations
- Working with contractors
5. Types of specification
- Exploring and using the various approaches to the development of appropriate specifications and scopes of work
- Output
- Performance
- Technical
- Functional
- Solutions-based
6. The role of value analysis
- Value engineering in the process of developing scopes of work and specifications
7. Specifications and contracts
- The legal and contractual impact of poor specifications and scopes of work
- How to embed scopes of work and specification outputs into tender and quotation documents
8. Specifications and contracts
- Developing KPIs and SLAs framed around robust effective specifications and scopes of work
- Negotiating with contractors
- Negotiating with stakeholders
