In Project Procurement Management, which of the following is a key output of the Plan Purchases and Acquisitions process?

Introduction / Context:
Plan Purchases and Acquisitions is a process in Project Procurement Management that determines what to procure, when, and how. It helps the project team decide whether to obtain products or services from outside the organization and prepares the strategy for doing so. Key outputs from this process include documented make or buy decisions and a Procurement Management Plan. This question asks you to identify that combined output.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The process is Plan Purchases and Acquisitions.
• We must select one of its key outputs.
• Options include procurement related decisions and documents as well as outputs from scope, quality, communications, and reporting processes.
• We assume PMI aligned terminology.

Concept / Approach:
During Plan Purchases and Acquisitions, the team analyses whether work should be performed internally or externally. These evaluations result in make or buy decisions. At the same time, the team develops the Procurement Management Plan, which describes how procurement processes will be managed from identifying needs through contract closure. Other artifacts such as the WBS, quality plans, stakeholder registers, and performance reports are created in different knowledge areas and processes.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that Plan Purchases and Acquisitions focuses on decision making about buying versus doing work in house, and on planning how procurement will be run. Step 2: Identify make or buy decisions and the Procurement Management Plan as the natural outputs of this process. Step 3: Scan the answer options and look for the choice that includes both elements in a procurement oriented description. Step 4: Option a explicitly mentions make or buy decisions and a Procurement Management Plan for managing external purchases, which matches these outputs. Step 5: Verify that the other options relate to scope definition, quality planning, stakeholder communications, or performance reporting, not procurement planning.

Verification / Alternative check:
Suppose your project requires a specialized component. During Plan Purchases and Acquisitions, you analyse whether internal teams can produce it at reasonable cost and quality or whether it is better to buy from an external vendor. You document the outcome as a make or buy decision. In the same process, you outline how you will manage this and other procurements, creating the Procurement Management Plan. This real scenario illustrates exactly what option a describes.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
The work breakdown structure and WBS dictionary are outputs of scope definition processes. The Quality Management Plan and process improvement plan belong to quality planning. The stakeholder register and stakeholder management strategy come from stakeholder and communications related processes. Performance reports are outputs of performance reporting in communications management. None of these outputs directly represent the central decisions and plans from Plan Purchases and Acquisitions.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates sometimes confuse Plan Purchases and Acquisitions with later procurement processes like Plan Contracting or Request Seller Responses. A good way to remember the distinction is that Plan Purchases and Acquisitions answers the question of whether and how to buy, while later processes deal with detailed contract documents and interactions with sellers.

Final Answer:
A key output of Plan Purchases and Acquisitions is make or buy decisions and a Procurement Management Plan that describes how external purchases will be managed.