Preface

For years there has been a call to have a third-party book available for Oracle Primavera Contract Management (PCM). There are many "how-to" books written for Primavera P3-P6, why not for PCM? The problem with writing a "how-to" book for PCM is that the application can be configured in many different ways to accommodate the organization. Scheduling is scheduling; everyone performs that task pretty much the same way. However, there is no one way to manage contracts and therefore no one way to use PCM. Every organization is different and has different processes for each of the 33 available modules within PCM. So, a book cannot be written as a "how to use" PCM for your organization. This book will review the best practice concepts of managing contracts and communication and how to use PCM as a tool to reinforce these concepts. There are several tools available to organizations that provide similar functionality to PCM. They all have their strengths and weaknesses; none of them are perfect. Primavera is the recognized leader in producing applications to manage projects and project related information for several vertical markets. Even though PCM is not perfect, it is the tool against which others are judged. It allows the organization to own the data and can be configured for how the organization performs certain business processes.