Project Contract Management Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Contract Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CM-075

Before you join: Participants should have experience working on projects, purchasing goods or services, supervising contractors, or managing suppliers.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Projects fail commercially as often as they fail technically. Poorly defined scope, unclear acceptance criteria, late notices, weak records and unmanaged changes can turn a viable project into a dispute, cost overrun or delayed delivery. Project professionals need to understand what the contract requires, how risk has been allocated and how to administer commitments from award through closeout.

This course develops the practical contract management skills needed to plan, administer and control project contracts. Participants examine contract formation, scope definition, pricing, risk allocation, performance management, payment, change control, claims, disputes and closeout. They learn to interpret key clauses, prepare contract management plans, maintain registers, issue notices, assess variations and protect the project’s commercial position while maintaining workable supplier relationships.

Instructor-led delivery combines short briefings with contract cases from construction, infrastructure, technology, procurement and service delivery. Participants work with realistic contract documents, correspondence, change requests, payment records and dispute scenarios. During the first week, they build core contract administration documents; during the second, they test those documents against performance failures, claims and closeout issues. Participants leave with a completed project contract management pack that can be adapted for their own contracts. The course is delivered over 10 days, 08:30–16:30, in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course suits project managers, contract managers, procurement personnel, engineers, commercial staff and operational leaders who manage supplier, contractor or client obligations after contract award.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret contract clauses to identify obligations, rights, risks and notice requirements
  • Develop a contract management plan with governance, registers, controls and reporting cycles
  • Define statements of work using deliverables, acceptance criteria, assumptions and exclusions
  • Administer contract changes through documented variation assessment, approval and implementation
  • Monitor supplier performance using KPIs, service levels, milestones and corrective action plans
  • Prepare payment assessments using pricing schedules, progress evidence, deductions and retained amounts
  • Assess claims using contemporaneous records, contractual entitlement and cause-and-effect analysis
  • Present a complete project contract management pack for management review

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence reading obligations, notices and change clauses
  • A repeatable method for administering project contracts after award
  • Stronger evidence preparation for variations, claims and payment decisions
  • Clearer communication with legal, procurement, finance and suppliers
  • A completed contract management pack for immediate workplace adaptation

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of contractual risks, missed notices and scope gaps
  • Better control of supplier commitments, milestones, quality and service levels
  • More defensible variation, payment and claim decisions
  • Reduced value leakage from undocumented changes and weak records
  • Consistent post-award governance across project and operational contracts

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can position contract management activities within the project lifecycle and governance structure.

  • Contract lifecycle stages from sourcing strategy through closeout and records retention
  • Project delivery models and their commercial risk consequences
  • Roles of sponsor, project manager, contract manager, and administrator
  • Authority matrices distinguishing approval rights, delegation limits, and signature powers
  • Contract management plan aligned with project governance and stage gates
  • Document control rules for correspondence, notices, registers, and evidence

Participants can identify the documents and terms that form an enforceable project contract.

  • Statement of work structure: scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, and exclusions
  • Order of precedence clauses resolving conflicts between contract documents
  • Incorporation by reference and risks from unreviewed external documents
  • Offer, acceptance, consideration, capacity, and authority in contract formation
  • Letters of intent and interim agreements before final contract execution
  • Contract data sheets capturing project-specific commercial and technical particulars

Participants can define contractual scope that supports measurable delivery and acceptance.

  • Work breakdown structures translated into contractual scope packages
  • Requirements traceability matrix linking needs, deliverables, tests, and acceptance
  • Assumptions, exclusions, interfaces, and dependencies stated without ambiguity
  • Acceptance criteria expressed through measurable outputs, tolerances, and evidence
  • Scope baseline approval before supplier mobilisation and expenditure commitment
  • Ambiguity review using defined terms, drawings, specifications, and schedules

Participants can assess pricing structures and their implications for project cost control.

  • Lump-sum pricing and the contractor’s scope completion responsibility
  • Unit-rate schedules for measurable quantities and certified work
  • Cost-reimbursable arrangements with allowable costs, ceilings, and audit rights
  • Time-and-materials controls using rate cards, caps, and timesheets
  • Incentive fees linked to target cost, schedule, or quality outcomes
  • Price adjustment clauses covering inflation indices, currency, and escalation

Participants can analyse risk allocation and identify clauses requiring active control.

  • Risk allocation matrix linking events, ownership, mitigation, and residual exposure
  • Indemnity clauses allocating third-party losses and specified liabilities
  • Limitation of liability provisions, exclusions, caps, and carve-outs
  • Insurance requirements for works, professional liability, and public liability
  • Force majeure clauses defining relief events, notice, and mitigation
  • Warranties, guarantees, and defects obligations after project completion

Participants can prepare a contract management plan for a live project contract.

  • Contract management plan sections, ownership, review dates, and approvals
  • Obligations register recording duties, due dates, owners, and evidence
  • Notice register tracking contractual deadlines, recipients, and delivery proof
  • Key dates schedule covering mobilisation, milestones, acceptance, and expiry
  • Governance calendar for meetings, reports, approvals, and escalation points
  • Contract file index covering executed documents, correspondence, and records

Participants can conduct an effective post-award handover and supplier mobilisation process.

  • Post-award handover from procurement to project delivery personnel
  • Kick-off agenda covering scope, governance, interfaces, and communication protocols
  • Mobilisation checklist for insurances, bonds, plans, personnel, and access
  • Baseline confirmation of schedule, budget, deliverables, and assumptions
  • Supplier onboarding controls for security, safety, data, and site requirements
  • Early warning indicators identifying mobilisation delays and unresolved dependencies

Participants can monitor contractual performance and initiate corrective action when required.

  • Key performance indicators linked to contractual outcomes and reporting evidence
  • Service level agreements defining targets, measurement methods, and remedies
  • Milestone tracking against baseline dates, dependencies, and acceptance status
  • Performance review meetings using action logs and accountable owners
  • Corrective action plans addressing root causes, dates, and verification
  • Dashboard reporting for delivery, quality, risk, finance, and compliance

Participants can issue compliant communications and maintain records that support contractual decisions.

  • Notice clauses specifying form, timing, recipient, address, and delivery method
  • Formal correspondence distinguishing notification, instruction, request, and reservation of rights
  • Contemporaneous records supporting progress, disruption, defects, and agreed decisions
  • Meeting minutes recording decisions, actions, dissent, and contractual implications
  • Email protocols preventing informal commitments and unauthorised scope changes
  • Evidence chains linking events, documents, approvals, and resulting cost impacts

Participants can assess payment requests against contractual terms and delivery evidence.

  • Payment schedules defining milestones, certification, invoices, and payment dates
  • Invoice review against purchase order, acceptance evidence, and pricing terms
  • Progress assessment using quantities, milestones, deliverables, and completion certificates
  • Retention, holdbacks, and release conditions under project payment clauses
  • Deductions for service credits, liquidated damages, and nonconforming work
  • Accruals and committed cost reporting for accurate project forecasts

Participants can control changes from initial request through contractual implementation.

  • Change request form documenting scope, reason, urgency, and originator
  • Impact assessment covering cost, schedule, quality, risk, and resources
  • Variation clauses defining authority, valuation, notice, and approval requirements
  • Change control board decisions recorded with conditions and delegated authority
  • Pricing variations using schedule rates, quotations, and substantiated cost build-ups
  • Updated baselines reflecting approved changes and rejected change requests

Participants can identify delay events and administer time-related contractual obligations.

  • Critical path method identifying activities that determine contractual completion dates
  • Delay notices preserving entitlement under time-bar and notification clauses
  • Extension of time assessments using event chronology and schedule evidence
  • Concurrent delay analysis distinguishing overlapping causes and responsibility
  • Acceleration instructions, costs, and schedule recovery obligations
  • Liquidated damages provisions, triggers, defences, and deduction procedures

Participants can administer quality controls, acceptance decisions and defect correction obligations.

  • Inspection and test plans linking requirements, hold points, and records
  • Nonconformance reports documenting defects, disposition, corrective action, and verification
  • Acceptance certificates confirming delivery against contractual acceptance criteria
  • Provisional acceptance conditions and outstanding punch-list obligations
  • Defects liability periods, warranty claims, and remedial work tracking
  • Quality records retained for audit, claims, and final account purposes

Participants can assess contractual claims using entitlement, causation and evidence.

  • Claim anatomy: contractual entitlement, causation, quantum, and supporting evidence
  • Issue registers separating potential claims from approved contract changes
  • Chronology development linking events, notices, instructions, and impacts
  • Cause-and-effect analysis connecting breach, disruption, delay, and financial loss
  • Quantum calculation using records, rates, invoices, and productivity evidence
  • Without-prejudice communications protecting settlement discussions and negotiating positions

Participants can select proportionate dispute avoidance and resolution approaches.

  • Dispute escalation ladders from project discussion to executive review
  • Negotiation preparation using interests, positions, alternatives, and settlement limits
  • Mediation process, confidential exchanges, and nonbinding settlement options
  • Adjudication procedures for time-sensitive payment and construction disputes
  • Arbitration and litigation differences in forum, procedure, evidence, and enforceability
  • Settlement agreements documenting release terms, payment, confidentiality, and closure

Participants can manage supplier relationships while preserving contractual discipline.

  • Relationship mapping across executive, commercial, technical, and operational contacts
  • Joint governance forums balancing performance discussion with contractual accountability
  • ISO 44001 principles for structured collaborative business relationships
  • Supplier risk reviews covering capacity, financial health, and delivery dependencies
  • Escalation protocols separating operational resolution from formal contractual remedies
  • Performance improvement plans with measurable commitments and review milestones

Participants can apply contract assurance controls to key compliance and ethical risks.

  • Delegated authority checks before commitments, amendments, and settlement approvals
  • Conflict-of-interest declarations for evaluators, administrators, and technical reviewers
  • Anti-bribery controls for gifts, hospitality, intermediaries, and facilitation payments
  • Data protection clauses governing personal data, access, retention, and incidents
  • Sanctions and export-control checks affecting suppliers, goods, and payments
  • Contract assurance reviews testing compliance with terms, approvals, and records

Participants can compare common standard-form contract structures and administration priorities.

  • FIDIC contract roles, notices, determinations, and engineer administration functions
  • NEC4 ECC early warnings, compensation events, and programme obligations
  • PMBOK Guide procurement processes and project contract management interfaces
  • Standard-form selection based on risk allocation, delivery model, and jurisdiction
  • Particular conditions modifying standard clauses for project-specific requirements
  • Contract familiarisation briefing focused on clauses requiring active administration

Participants can close contracts in a controlled manner and capture commercial lessons.

  • Closeout checklist covering deliverables, payments, releases, and document handover
  • Final account reconciliation of variations, claims, retention, and outstanding liabilities
  • Completion certificates and final acceptance under contractual closeout provisions
  • Asset, data, intellectual property, and records transfer requirements
  • Supplier performance evaluation against contractual and relationship management criteria
  • Lessons-learned review identifying recurring scope, change, and governance failures

Participants can build, review and present a complete contract management pack for a project scenario.

  • Contract management plan integrating governance, obligations, risks, and reporting
  • Scope and acceptance matrix defining deliverables, criteria, owners, and evidence
  • Notice, change, payment, and claims registers prepared from project events
  • Performance dashboard linking milestones, KPIs, actions, and contractual remedies
  • Management review assessing commercial exposure, decisions, and escalation requirements
  • Presentation of contract management pack with implementation priorities and controls

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Project contract management plan template
  2. Contract obligations and notice register
  3. Scope and acceptance criteria matrix
  4. Change and variation control template
  5. Supplier performance dashboard
  6. Claims chronology and entitlement analysis model

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — need to control contractual commitments alongside schedule, cost and delivery
  • Contract Managers — need structured methods for post-award administration and commercial reporting
  • Procurement Managers — need to support effective handover from sourcing to contract delivery
  • Project Engineers — need to manage technical scope, acceptance and contractor correspondence
  • Commercial Managers — need evidence-based approaches to payments, variations and claims
  • Operations Managers — need to govern outsourced services and supplier performance

Skills and tools covered

Contract administrationScope controlCommercial risk analysisChange managementClaims assessmentSupplier performance management

Tools and standards

PMBOK Guide, FIDIC Conditions of Contract, NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract, ISO 44001

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings, clause-reading sessions, contract cases, facilitated group work and timed commercial simulations. Participants analyse statements of work, pricing schedules, notices, correspondence, performance data and claim records. They prepare contract administration documents in stages, receive instructor feedback and refine their work as new project events emerge. Application planning links each method to participants’ active or anticipated contracts, supplier relationships and internal approval arrangements.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working on projects, purchasing goods or services, supervising contractors, or managing suppliers. They should be familiar with basic project terms such as scope, schedule, budget, milestone and stakeholder. Prior exposure to contracts, purchase orders or statements of work is helpful, but detailed legal training is not assumed. Participants do not need to be lawyers, quantity surveyors or procurement specialists. The course explains commercial and administrative concepts without requiring prior knowledge of FIDIC, NEC4 or other standard forms.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic project work and have some exposure to suppliers, purchase orders, statements of work or contractor delivery. Legal training and prior use of standard-form contracts are not required.

Bring a current or recent contract, statement of work, supplier issue or project change example if organisational policy permits. Sensitive material can be anonymised, and course cases are provided for participants without documents.

It is designed for professionals who manage contracts after award, including project managers, contract managers, procurement staff, engineers and commercial personnel. It is particularly useful where supplier delivery, changes or payment decisions affect project outcomes.

Procurement courses focus mainly on sourcing and supplier selection, while project management courses cover wider delivery disciplines. This course concentrates on administering contractual rights, obligations, changes, performance, payments and claims after contract award.

Participants build documents that can be adapted for active contracts, including a management plan, obligations register, change controls and performance dashboard. The methods also help participants review existing contract files and identify immediate control gaps.

The first week establishes contract documents, scope, risk, mobilisation, performance and financial controls. The second week addresses change, delay, quality, claims, disputes, assurance, closeout and a final contract management pack presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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