Public contracting authorities which be called the authorities who are involved in delivering capital project investments under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) concessions need to manage the PPP life cycle stages from signature until the end of the contract life. Those include all activities related to contract management which will cover the ongoing administration of the PPP contract as well as overall project management activities that arise from the responsibilities retained by the Authority under the PPP arrangement and possible changes in the requirements during the life of the project which both can take place during the construction and the operation and maintenance stages of the PPP project.
The key objective of Post-Award Contract Management is to ensure that the PPP concession meets its objectives continuously while managing risks proactively and maintaining effective working relationships with the various stakeholders. Contract management of PPP concessions can become highly critical due to the long tenure of those projects, the complex nature of activities, and the involvement of various stakeholders. The Post-Award PPP project life cycle stages include the stage of development, construction, operation and maintenance, and exit. Under each stage, several activities need to be performed by the Authority.
A Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb will enable the organization to map the PPP project life cycle stages and define the activities for each stage. The Authority could have multiple versions of their PPP project’s delivery life cycle stages depending on the type of project which could include schools, ports, highways, utilities, and prisons among others. The activities within each stage will be linked to its source PMWeb record or document that relates to each particular activity. Those could be for example the project budget, risk register, concession agreement, issues log, progress reports, testing and commissioning checklists, meeting minutes, change orders, and services performance reports among many others.
To ensure that the activities at each stage are performed following the Authority documented procedures and tasks for executing those activities, PMWeb allows creating checklists for each activity to be performed at each stage. A single checklist will be created for each PPP project life cycle stage which includes all activities within the stage as well as all the tasks that need to be performed for each activity. PMWeb allows assigning the entity responsible for performing each activity and task using the skills or task type field. In addition, text notes for each activity and task can be also added.
PMWeb stage-gate module will be also used to document actions that need to be formally reviewed at each stage before that particular stage can be considered completed and closed. The Stage-Gate Score tab will be used to detail all items that need to be checked and verified. It provides the option to provide a unique weight and score point for each item. In addition, it provides the option the specify the “Answer” type for each item. Those could be text, the value from a predefined list of values, amount, and date among others.
Although a workflow can be assigned to the stage to review and approve, nevertheless, the Authority might require having a formal PPP stage gate review process. Using PMWeb custom form builder a form will be created for the formal stage-gate review. There could be separate forms designed for each PPP stage as the review requirements for each stage might differ. This will expedite the stage gates review and ensure it has been completed as per the set project governance policy and procedure. Similar to all PMWeb modules, documents can be uploaded and attached to the Stage-Gate Review form as well as relevant PMWeb records can be linked. In addition, a workflow will be assigned to formalize the steps for submitting, reviewing, and approving the Stage-Gate Review form.
The PPP Post Award Contract Management Deliverables Status report will provide the organization with real-time information to monitor, evaluate and report the performance of each project stage activity. The form can be designed in the desired form and format to meet the organization’s reporting requirements.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education, and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication, and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), an Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE), and a Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Master’s in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – from Kuwait University, Kuwait, and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, and London Business School, London, UK.