ABSTRACT
Project managers run projects. Projects deal with getting something done. Projects
also involve relationships. Sooner or later every project will involve the project
manager in buying in something that is needed for the project from outside the
organisation, whether work equipment or services. Once that happens the project
becomes dependent on interfaces between organisations – purchaser, contractor,
subcontractor/supplier, architect, consulting engineer, quantity surveyor and so on.
Some of those interfaces may be informal, but most turn into contracts – and even an
informal relationship can actually be a contract whether we know it or not.
