Introduction
This course equips you to control contract risk from the first negotiation to final close-out. It is essential for professionals who know that contract value is won or lost long before a dispute begins, and long after the signature is dry. Over five days, you will master how contracts are formed, structured and secured, and how they are managed through post-award delivery. Real-life examples and practical tools help you protect your organisation’s interests while keeping commercial relationships strong.
You will explore tendering, key clauses, payment and delivery protection, liability, termination and dispute resolution, alongside change and risk management, performance, negotiation and conflict skills. You will also learn how to avoid costly claims, handle slippage, scope creep and cost growth, and uphold business integrity. Each day builds practical, workplace-ready confidence, so you return able to draft, negotiate, administer and close contracts with confidence that deliver measurable value, reduce disputes and protect commercial relationships across your organisation.
This training course will highlight:
- Contract formation, tendering and structures that secure performance
- Key clauses covering payment, delivery, ownership, risk and liquidated damages
- Post-award management, change, risk and contract closeout
- Liability, termination, dispute resolution and business integrity
- Negotiation, relationship and leadership skills for contract success
Objectives
At the end of this training course, you will learn to:
- Analyse risks inherent in contract formation
- Apply key clauses to secure performance
- Evaluate procurement strategies and contract types
- Manage post-award change, risk and closeout
- Resolve claims and disputes effectively
Training Methodology
This training course blends short, focused presentations with discussion, practical exercises and real-life examples drawn from the business issues delegates face. Worked examples and team exercises help apply contract principles to formation, post-award management and dispute scenarios. Delegates are encouraged to participate fully and share experience with peers. Topics are kept relevant to daily contractual challenges, so learning translates into immediate workplace benefit.
Organisational Impact
The Organisation will have the following benefits:
- Stronger control of contract creation processes
- Reduced transactional and litigation risk exposure
- Greater value from contract performance provisions
- Fewer costly disputes from unclear clauses
- Improved post-award delivery and contract closeout
- Stronger, more productive commercial relationships
Personal Impact
At the end of this training course, the participants will gain the following:
- Clearer understanding of the contracting process
- Confidence interpreting and applying key clauses
- Sharper negotiation and conflict management skills
- Better allocation of risk in contracts
- Enhanced contract administration and management capability
- Stronger credibility and career progression prospects
Who should Attend?
Contracts affect nearly every function in modern organisations. This training course will benefit anyone creating, negotiating, managing or approving commercial and project contracts.
This training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:
- Contract holders, managers and administrators
- Contract, procurement and purchasing professionals
- Project managers, project team members and PMO staff
- Legal, finance, assurance and quality professionals
- Anyone drafting, negotiating or approving contracts
Contract Foundations, Formation and Procurement Strategy
- The value of effective contract management, the benefits of getting it right and the pitfalls of getting it wrong
- Quantifying contract risk and controlling the contracting process, from understanding the deal to controlling the negotiation
- The overall contracts and procurement cycle and its relationship to project management
- Developing effective procurement strategies and selecting common contract types, weighing their pros, cons and risks
- Key roles and responsibilities of contract holders, procurement teams and project teams
- Contract formation: offer and acceptance, battle of the forms, consideration and intention, and whether a contract must be written
- Pre-contractual issues and documents, including due diligence, permits and financial stability
- Understanding when parties become committed
Tendering, Contract Structures and Securing Performance
- Auctions, bids and tenders, including invitations to tender and invitations to treat
- Heads of terms and letters of intent
- Bonds, guarantees and standby letters of credit as security for performance
- Form of agreement: contractual structures and incorporating standard terms of business
- Informal contracts and letters of comfort
- Subcontracts and warranties
- Preparing for the post-award phase and managing handover from contract award
Key Clauses and Post-Award Contract Management
- Pre-contract and post-contract qualification phrases, including subject to contract, without prejudice and subject to client comment
- Securing payment: payment obligations, non-payment remedies, letters of credit and guarantees
- Delivery, ownership and risk: time and place of delivery, late or failed delivery, damage in transit, acceptance, transfer and retention of title, and time of the essence
- Liquidated damages
- Post-award process overview, including inputs and outputs across the initiation, planning and delivery stages
- Change management in contracts, including variation control
- Risk management in contracts
When Things Go Wrong: Liability, Termination and Closeout
- Contract liability: managing and limiting liability, damages, insurance and indemnities
- Product liability: how claims are brought in contract and in negligence, and the practical risks
- Frustration of a contract and force majeure
- Notices and service, entire agreement and waiver
- Interpretation and signing, including authority to sign and power of attorney
- When contracts end: termination, discharge, transfer, variation and mistake
- Contract closeout process overview, including inputs and outputs, contract closure, handover and transition, and operations and support
- Handling premature closure of contracts
Contract Management Skills, Disputes and Compliance
- Relationship and stakeholder management, communication and leadership in contract delivery
- Performance management, negotiation and conflict management
- Documentation and record keeping
- Common issues and risks, including slippage, scope creep, cost growth, and completion, sign-off and payment problems
- Claims and disputes: choice of law and choice of dispute resolution, including negotiated settlement, litigation, arbitration, mediation, adjudication and experts
- Settlement issues, including enforcement of judgements and awards, and jurisdiction
- Business integrity and compliance: bribery, corruption, money laundering and competition law
- Recap, reference material and an action plan for applying learning back at work
- Upon successful completion of this training course, GLOMACS Certificate will be awarded to the delegates. Continuing Professional Education credits (CPE): In accordance with the standards of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, one CPE credit is granted per 50 minutes of attendance
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