Highlights rather than an exhaustive checklist. We do not cover everything practitioners need to consider when setting up and managing contracts, only those issues we persistently see cause problems.

A focus on commercial issues rather than project management. Contracts often form an integral part of a wider project or programme. Getting things wrong within a programme can impact on a contract and vice versa. Here we focus on the commercial and contract management issues.

An NAO perspective. Although we consulted stakeholders for feedback on our findings and to identify good practice, our insights aligns with Cabinet Office guidance such as organisational commercial standards, are our own.

Good practice framed around the contract lifecycle - We use our commercial relationship lifecycle to structure our thinking. We recognise many of the issues raised will overlap different stages of the framework.

We adopt a standard format set out here.

Terminology - The public sector does not always use commercial and contracting terms consistently. We use 'commercial and contract management' to encompass all activities across the contract lifecycle. Our glossary is here.

This document is not to be used as a checklist for assessing commercial and contract management performance.