Identifying Environmental Factors and Process Assets= Learning What Support You Have in this Organization

While exploring the environment of the performing organization, you should also identify the environmental factors and the process assets that will influence your project. Some of these assets and factors can be used to help the project; others may have a negative influence.

Environmental Factors

The environmental factors are related to the environment internal or external to the performing organizations and can potentially impact the project. They may originate from within the performing organization, from any external organization participating in the project, or from both. These factors may have positive or negative influence on the project, and some of these factors may give rise to constraints for the project.

Organizational environmental factors include the following:

◆ Culture and structure. These refer to the culture and type of structure of the performing organization. Understanding the values, working styles, and personality of the entire Enactus team would be important for a new Enactus project manager to know.

◆ Processes and standards. Here are some examples:

◆ The organization may have specific processes in place do certain things in certain ways. For example all Enactus project managers should be trained in how to use Project in a Box. All projects should align to the minimum requirements as documented on the project charter template.
◆ There may be government and industry standards to follow, such as legal requirements, product standards, and quality standards relevant to the project. For example: Building standards and requirements for preschools in Tuvalu.
◆ Personnel administration information, such as guidelines for hiring, firing, and performance reviews. e.g. Process of how to join Enactus, how to join a project team, how to track your service hours for Enactus national recognition.

◆ Infrastructure and resources. These may include the following:

◆ Facilities and equipment to do the project e.g. Room on campus, AV equipment from the campus library, Business research center
◆ Project management information systems, such as software tools for scheduling tasks and meetings Human resources currently available in the organization, such as skills and expertise e.g. Project in a Box tool, MS Project, Google Calendar
◆ Commercial databases, such as standardized cost estimating data and risk databases e.g. Bloomberg terminals, ISM risk bench-marking, industry standard cost estimates
◆ Work authorization system of the organization, because the project needs to be authorized e.g. Project Charter Approval, Project Plan approval, Budget Approval, Local Campus Financial Approval Process, Campus Travel authorization process
◆ Communication channels and tools available in the organization, such as email systems e.g.Enactus Team Facebook page, Campus newsroom, University Magazine, Twitter, Enactus Team weekly meeting, Enactus Team email announcements

◆ Internal and external conditions. Examples include:

◆ Risk tolerances of the project stakeholders e.g. Project cost, size, complexity compared to capabilities of sponsor and project team
◆ Marketplace conditions relevant to the project e.g.- Global price of Cacao relevant to price cacao farmers are paid in Ivory Coast
◆ Political climate e.g.- "Keep the country country" activist green movement's impact on a project that wants to build a community center in a local community

Note that the environmental factors can be internal to the performing organization, such as the organization’s culture, or external to the organization, such as market conditions.

Organizational Process Assets- (Project in a Box)

These are the processes or process-related assets from any of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to help the project succeed. The organizational process assets are typically grouped into two categories: processes and procedures for conducting work, and a knowledge base for storing and retrieving information. For example, the performing organization might have its own guidelines, policies, and procedures, whose effect on the project must be considered while developing the project charter and other project documents that will follow. Another example of an organization’s process assets are the knowledge and learning base acquired from previous projects. This is essentially what Project in a Box is all about- making it easy for project manager's to quickly understand all the best processes, procedures, tools, and previous best practices so they have the best chance of having a successful project. All of these thins below are found within the Project in a Box tool.

Processes and procedures.

This category includes processes, procedures, guidelines, and requirements as described in the following:

◆ Standardized processes and procedures. Examples are organizational-level policies, such as health and safety policies, ethics policies, project management policies, and quality policies and procedures, such as quality checklists and auditing processes. e.g. Project Charter approval process, budget funding process, Map Day process, project health check lists, weekly project audits by VP of Projects

◆ Standard guidelines and criteria. Examples are:

◆ Project closure guidelines, project acceptance criteria, proposal evaluation criteria, performance measurement criteria, and so on

◆ Guidelines and criteria for tailoring the standardized organizational processes for the purposes of the project

◆ Templates. Examples are the templates to support some project management tasks, such as project charter templates, risk management, project schedule network diagrams, customer requirements gathering templates, and work breakdown structure.

◆ Requirements. Examples are:

◆ Communication requirements, hiring requirements, and safety and security requirements

◆ Guidelines and requirements for project closures, such as final mandatory project audits and product acceptance criteria. You need to follow these guidelines and accommodate the requirements while working out the details of the project management processes that you will perform.

Knowledge base. This category includes databases, which allow you to store information and to retrieve the stored information when needed. Here are some items in this category:

◆ Project files. The documents and files related to the project, such as the project charter and the scope statement.

◆ Measurement database. Examples are the performance measurements or current and past projects.

◆Historical information and lessons learned. Archives of files from previous projects and lessons learned from them.

◆ Issue and defect management. Database that allows you to manage issues and defects, such as to log, control, and resolve an issue or defect. You can also find the status of the issue or the defect from this database.

◆ Financial database. The financial information related to the project, such as budget, work hours, and cost overruns. Configuration management database. This contains the change history: different versions and baselines for the company standards and policies and for the archived project documents.

In summary a project manager needs to understand the environment and organization around the project. For example an Enactus project manager will need to be aware of the culture of Enactus, the culture of their community and University, the culture of the National Enactus organization, and the primary culture of the location the project will be implemented within. They also need to understand all of the rules, policies, procedures, constraints, and support available that will impact their project.