Skills and experience

A range of skills are needed throughout the contracting cycle.

Recognise that not all skills are necessarily available in-house or reside in an individual staff member.

Interpersonal and relationship:

•  Undertake tasks in a motivated and professional way

•  Build strong relationships. Understand the parties' culture and ways of working

•  Encourage cooperation and communicate orally and in writing

Subject matter/ industry knowledge:

•  Understand the contractual requirement and the market or able to quickly gain relevant knowledge

•  Objectively assess goods and services and whether performance standards have been met

Project management:

•  Plan, schedule, organise work, manage tasks, and consult with stakeholders

•  Motivate and lead people who may not be under the direct control of the contract manager

•  Establish relationships to get tasks done in a timely way

•  Use skills available to get the best possible result

Performance management:

•  Provide feedback both positive and negative

•  Explain acquiring entity's position and understand legal position in addressing under-performance. Understand contractor's environment

Problem solving:

•  Have a positive approach to solving problems

•  Encourage mutual cooperation to address issues

•  Have the ability to make decisions in circumstances where there may not be full knowledge of all relevant facts in the available timeframe

Negotiation:

•  Deal with evolving and changing circumstances

•  Have subject matter knowledge and be able to bring about mutually acceptable agreements

•  Display professional behaviour

•  Have relevant training or experience in planning for and conducting negotiations

•  Manage robust dialogue

Accountability/financial management:

•  Understand and apply relevant laws and accountability requirements and financial arrangements

Human resource management:

•  Manage the team to maximise performance over the long term

If a team is being used to undertake the tasks required at each stage of the contracting cycle, it is important to build the team so that the range of skills required are available. Where a team has already been formed, it is still useful for the team to review both the skills and experience needed to do the work and those available within the team.

Some points to keep in mind when deciding on team members and the skills required are:

•  recognise that not all skills are necessarily available in-house or reside in an individual staff member, and

•  review the skills needed and available periodically throughout the contracting cycle to ensure they remain relevant. Changes may be needed due to changed circumstances of the contract or as a result of staff turnover.

Assessing whether the required skills are available will involve:

•  identifying the skills that are needed

•  identifying the skills available and any gaps

•  determining how these gaps will be addressed. For example: by using external experts, training of current staff or by recruitment action, and

•  taking action to obtain the skills needed.

The Contract Management Skills Matrix at the end of this part can be used in identifying any skill gaps that may need to be addressed in managing the contract.

The following case study is an example of obtaining the skills necessary to assess contract performance.

Review the skills needed and available periodically throughout the contracting cycle to ensure they remain relevant.

Case Study: Identifying skills needed

An entity was renewing its IT services contract. A significant issue on the previous contract was the management of the growth in usage and consequent increases in capacity provided and costs. Under the previous contract, the contractor was required to analyse usage and provide capacity accordingly. The agency had no internal expertise in the complexities of analysing IT usage data. The new contract had increased requirements for the provision of detailed usage data, and of the contractor's suggested capacity management actions. The agency added a new person to its contract management team, whose responsibilities included capacity planning, to enable the agency to make informed, independent judgements on this aspect of the contract.

Comment: While in this case it was decided that in-house expertise was required, for many contracts it will be cost-effective to have access to specialist knowledge on an as required basis through a contract or on a retainer basis.