Last Updated on April 30, 2026 by Jorge Lynch
During requirements determination it is important to prepare a preliminary procurement plan and a tentative procurement strategy in order to preclude any false expectations given the procurement lead-time and when the fulfillment of the requirement can reasonable be expected given a particular procurement method.
Although once the requirement has been approved and budget allocated, the final procurement plan will be prepared and should be followed and amended as needed, the preliminary procurement plan is very useful at this early stage for all stakeholders (especially the requesting entity) to avoid setting unreasonable expectations about the fulfillment of the requirement.
So, at this point when determining and assessing the feasibility of the requirement, preliminary procurement planning serves to give some assurances as to what can be expected in terms of the timeframe for requesting and receiving of offers, evaluation, negotiations, selection and contract award and administration.