1. Enterprise Environmental Factors and
Organizational Process Assets
Produced by Dr. Linda P. Dowdell, MS, MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP
Project Management Solutions, LLC
PMI® New York City

2.  One of the dilemmas that concern project
managers is how to initiate a project
 The dilemma increases when project
managers are new to the organization –
especially when they work as consultants
 The dilemma increases even more when
project managers must take mandatory
training geared for new resources, and
postpone to learn about enterprise
environmental factors and organizational
process assets.
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3.  The mentioned dilemmas are inevitable; however,
project managers should initiate a project in parallel
with two knowledge areas, Project Integration
Management and Project Stakeholder Management
(PMI® standards) because
 the first knowledge area starts with a Project Charter which
contains key information to justify a project, a list of key
stakeholders, etc.
 the second knowledge area identifies the stakeholders in more
detail, which will be part of a Stakeholder Registry
 At the same time, project managers need to
familiarize themselves with the enterprise
environmental factors, and the organizational process
assets – because these contain the factors about the
company and the assets which could be applied to
projects.
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4. These process assets are outside of PMI standards
but form part of an organization (e.g., policies,
historical information, lessons learned, etc.)
These process assets are important because they
influence the recommended processes (PMBOK®,
for example) which are necessary to develop a
project.
Note: Generally, each PMI® process group
(initiating, planning, executing, monitoring,
controlling and closing) makes reference to
organizational process assets (whatever they
are).
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5. PMI® makes references to 2 categories of
organizational process assets which are specific
to the performing organization
Processes and Procedures (for initiating, planning,
executing, and closing)
Plans
Processes
Politics
Procedures
Corporate Knowledge Base
Lessons learned
Historical information
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 27-28

6. These are the categories which are specific to the
performing organization to conduct project work
(1) Processes and Procedures for Initiating and
Planning
 Guidelines and criteria to tailor processes and procedures that
are standard to the organization
 Organizational standards for policies such as human resources,
health and safety, ethics, project management, etc.
 Organizational standards for product and project life cycle
 Organizational standards for quality policies and procedures
such as process audits, improvement targets, checklists, process
definition, etc.
 Templates such as risk register, stakeholder register, contract
templates, etc.)
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, pp. 27-28

7. These are the categories which are specific to the
performing organization to conduct project work
(cont.)
(1) Processes and procedures for execution, monitoring
y controlling
◦ Procedures for change control (and the steps required),
which includes how approval and validation of changes will
be done
◦ Procedures for financial controls such as time reporting,
accounting codes (e.g., cost centers), how consultants will
report time, etc.
◦ Procedures for issue and defect management
◦ Communication requirements such as retention policies,etc.
◦ Procedures for approving project work
◦ Guides, work instructions, performance measurement
criteria
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 27-28

8. These are the categories which are specific to
the performing organization to conduct
project work (cont.)
(1) Processes and procedures for closing
Guides or requirements to close projects
Lessons learned
Project audit requirements by required parties
Project evaluations by required parties
Product validations (by required parties) along with
corresponding acceptance criteria
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 27-28

9. These are the categories which are specific to the
performing organization to conduct project work
(cont.)
(2) Corporate Knowledge Base
These are the knowledge bases that are necessary to
archive and retrieve information
Configuration management knowledge bases
Financial databases (which can be systems)
Historical information and lessons learned knowledge
bases (e.g., SharePoint)
Issue and defect management databases
Process measurement databases
Project files of previous projects
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 27-28

10. Enterprise environmental factors are outside PMI®
standards but form part of and may be unique to
organizations (e.g., culture, infrastructure, etc.).
Enterprise environmental factors are important
because they influence the recommended and
necessary processes to develop a project.
Note: Generally, each PMI® process group
(initiating, planning, executing, monitoring,
controlling and closing) makes reference to
enterprise environmental factors (whatever they
are).
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11. Enterprise environmental factors are NOT
under the control of the project management
team, but they do influence, constrain, or
help direct a project. In other words, these
environmental factors could improve or
constrain project management options that in
turn may influence the outcome of a project
in a positive or negative manner.
Enterprise environmental factors are necessary
inputs to most PMI® planning processes.
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 29

12. Among others, the following enterprise environmental
factors include:
 Culture, infrastructure and governance of the organization
 Geographic distribution of facilities and resources
 Government or industry standards
◦ Regulatory agency regulations
◦ Codes of conduct
◦ Project standards
◦ Quality standards
◦ Workmanship standards
 Infrastructure
◦ Existing facilities
◦ Capital equipment
 Existing human resources
◦ Skills
◦ Disciplines and knowledge (design, dev, contracting, purchasing)
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 29

13. Among others, the following enterprise
environmental factors include (cont.):
 Personnel administration
◦ Guidelines in selecting and retaining personnel
◦ Employee performance reviews and training records
◦ Reward and overtime policy
◦ Time tracking
 Work authorization systems
 Market conditions
 Stakeholder risk tolerances
 Political climate
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 29

14. Among others, the following enterprise
environmental factors include (cont.):
 Established communication channels
 Commercial databases (standardized cost
estimating, industry risk study information,
risk databases)
 Project management information system
◦ Scheduling tool, configuration management system,
repositories, web sites, etc.
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PMBOK, Fifth Edition, p. 29