Procurement Risk and Contract Management L7 Assessment Brief 2024-25

Assessment task details and instructions

According to CIPS procurement is the business management function that ensures identification, sourcing, access and management of the external resources that an organisation needs or may need to fulfil its strategic objectives. Leading companies have recognised that strategic procurement can play a key role in driving profitable growth by re-examining their supply base and sourcing methods through collaborative relationships with external resources and productive supply markets. However, organisations must remain on guard when engaging in procurement activities as there are several risks associated with procurement and thus organisations must mitigate these risks through proactive planning and a rigorous procurement process.

For an organisation of your choice, you are asked to:

1. Critically analyse whether the selected organisation's procurement structure and activities allows them to achieve procurement excellence and generate competitive advantage and develop a set of proposals for that could lead to improvements (50%).
2. Analyse the key procurement risks and opportunities faced by the organisation through the production of a risk assessment and suggest ways in which the organisation can improve its procurement activities to deal with these risks (50%).

Additional instructions

Please follow a report format. Therefore, you should have a title page, contents page, sections and subsections, page numbers, appendix section etc. Please note if you are uncertain on how to present and structure a report then visit the university library and ask for assistance.

Please do use diagrams, illustrations, tables, graphics etc. wherever these are helpful, and remember that these do not count towards your word limit. If you do use these, please do not put them in the appendices if they are part of your discussion. Appendices are the appropriate places to put supporting material, however, remember if the reader is satisfied with the main points of your discussion; the supporting information within the appendices may not even be reviewed.

Please try to use theory explicitly at all stages, but do not spend too much time describing a theory. While you must be explicit about the theories, models, techniques etc. that you use, you can assume that the reader is familiar with them. What the reader requires is evidence of your ability to understand and apply the theory and leam from in order to support the development of your findings and/or ideas.

You must cite all sources on which you have relied, for example textbooks, journal articles, web pages etc. using the APA 7th (Harvard) Style referencing system. If you do not cite all sources, then you may be accused of plagiarism, and that may endanger your success in passing the module. If you are in any doubt about how to reference your work, please obtain guidance from the library and/or your academic librarian(s) for this module. 

You will also need to take the following into account when completing your assignment:

• Quality of executive summary (does it give a brief complete summary of your paper for an executive to read?)
• Establishment of relevant theory (e.g. what do we mean by sourcing?)
• Allocation of credit and sources used (have I included references and citations to the material I have used?)
• Clarity of argument
• Overall report presentation including spelling and grammar
• Adherence to nominated word limit (+/- 10%)
• Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.5 space), fully referenced (APA 7th (Harvard) Style)

Assessment Criteria

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Practical, Professional or Subject Specific Skills

Assessed intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of procurement for global organisations operating in complex market environments.
2. Locate, synthesise and critically evaluate recent/current information from a wide range of published literature in the area of Procurement, Risk and Contract Management.
3. Apply knowledge of the theory and practice of Procurement, Risk and Contract Management to develop insights into and solve current problems.
4. Critically evaluate the use of complex models of Procurement, Risk and Contract Management; systematically and creatively making sound judgements based on the systematic analysis and creative synthesis of ideas.
5. Critically and effectively assess the value of theories, concepts and models to the practice of Procurement, Risk and Contract Management.
6. Demonstrate a sound understanding of the importance of risk management in the development and maintenance of sustainable procurement.
7. Leads by example - as high levels of self-awareness, emotional and social intelligence, empathy and compassion, and able to identify mental well-being in others. Work collaboratively enabling empowerment and delegation - acts with humility and authenticity, is credible, confident and resilient.
8. Judgement and Challenge - Takes personal accountability aligned to clear values. Demonstrates flexibility and willingness to challenge when making decisions and solving problems instils confidence demonstrating honesty, integrity, openness, and trust.
9. Courage & Curiosity is confident and brave, willing to innovate, seeks new ideas and looks for contingencies.

Manages complexity and ambiguity, comfortable in uncertainty, and is pragmatic.

10. Valuing Difference - engaging with all, is ethical and demonstrates inclusivity, recognising diversity, championing, and enabling cultural inclusion. Empowers and motivates to inspire and support others.

11. Professional Reflects on own performance, demonstrates professional standards in relation behaviour and ongoing development. Advocates the use of good practice within and outside the organisation