Differences between organizational process assets and business environment factors

hxtd20 19

journey

Business environment factors and organizational process assets in PMP certification knowledge system

Five people agree with this article.

Read it aloud to you.

8 minutes

Project portfolio, project set and project are all carried out in a larger environment than them. Managing these tasks out of the reality of the environment will make management an unrealistic castle in the air. Published on 20 18, in the sixth edition of PMBOK, the related knowledge points of business environment factors and organizational process assets and their functions are emphasized. Business environment factors and organizational process assets can be used as input items in all management processes of the whole project management, and they have an impact on all aspects of project management. Therefore, as a PMP candidate, it is necessary to know these two knowledge points in detail.

Enterprise environmental factors (eef) refer to various conditions that affect, restrict or dominate the project beyond the control of the project team. These conditions may come from inside and/or outside the organization. Business environment is the input of many project management processes, especially most planning processes. These factors may improve or limit the flexibility of project management, and may also have a positive or negative impact on project results. In terms of nature or type, the factors of occupational environment are various. In order to implement this project effectively, we must consider these factors. Students who have carefully read PMBOK will find that business environment factors are easy to remember because they overlap with organizational process assets in content and details. In the process of examination, especially in situational questions, there is often a kind of examination questions. The project is being planned and a coefficient is referenced. Ask whether this is an occupational environment factor or an organizational process asset. If the distinction between the two is not clear enough, you may answer wrong.

Business environment factors can be divided into external business environment factors and internal business environment factors.

Let's first discuss the internal business environment factors of the organization:

The following are the business environment factors within the organization:

1, organizational culture, structure and governance. For example, it includes vision, mission, values, beliefs, cultural norms, leadership style, hierarchy and authority relationship, organizational style, ethics and behavior norms.

2. Geographical distribution of facilities and resources. For example, it includes factory location, virtual team, * * * enjoyment system and cloud computing.

3. Infrastructure. For example, it includes existing facilities, equipment, organizational communication channels, information technology hardware, availability and functions.

4. Information technology software. For example, it includes schedule planning software tools, configuration management system, network interface with other online automation systems and work authorization system.

5. Resource availability. Examples include contract and procurement constraints, approved suppliers and subcontractors, and cooperation agreements.

6. The ability of employees. For example, it includes the professional knowledge, skills, abilities and specific knowledge of existing human resources.

You can find that a large number of databases, programs and policies also appear in organizational process assets. But it is not difficult to understand that the environmental factors of organizational content and career include the infrastructure and fixed assets of the organization. These are the materials, equipment and resources of the organization. In fact, that kind of information system is composed of server equipment, network switching equipment, security equipment, operating system and various genuine authorized database systems and application software. Hardware and software are purchased or developed by the organization and already belong to the company's fixed assets, so it is not difficult to understand that the "system" in the process of project management actually belongs to the business environment factors. However, when these systems are running, the data generated and recorded should be regarded as organizational process assets, not business environment factors. There are many categories in information technology software (PMIS), among which configuration management system (including change control system) and work authorization system are the most important. Next we will explain these two systems.

Configuration management system: mainly records the physical characteristics and attributes that the project needs to deliver in order to meet the business and functional requirements. In the software industry, it is very similar to the software specification.

Change control system: It can be a computerized computing system or a manual process. It is mainly responsible for controlling the change management and audit process of the project. It is a subsystem of configuration management system and a component of configuration management system.

Work authorization system: it is often misunderstood as specifying a staff member and what kind of power and responsibility he has. This kind of cognition is wrong. In order to clarify individual rights and responsibilities, we use RAM or RACI more in project management. The purpose of the work authorization system is to ensure that the decomposed project work is carried out by the right people at the right time and according to the reasonable and correct process. It is more concerned with the time and order of doing things.

External occupational environment factors include:

1, market conditions. For example, including competitors, market share, brand awareness, trademarks, etc.

2. Social and cultural influences and problems. For example, it includes political atmosphere, code of conduct, moral concepts and so on.

3. Legal restrictions. For example, it includes national or local laws and regulations related to security, data protection, business practices, employment and procurement.

4. Commercial database. For example, it includes benchmarking results, standardized cost estimation data, industry risk research data and risks.

Database.

5. Academic research. Examples include industry research, publications and benchmark results.

6. Government or industry standards. For example, it includes regulations and standards related to products, production, environment, quality and technology.

7. Financial considerations. For example, including currency exchange rate, interest rate, inflation rate, tariff, geographical location, etc.

8. Physical environment elements. Include, for example, work environment, weather and restrictions.

External business environment factors need to pay the most attention to the commercial database, and the so-called commercial database can be understood as payment. For example, the company lacks understanding of a project before the project is established and is unaware of its market prospects and risks. Therefore, a third-party consulting company is hired to investigate and demonstrate these two issues. In the end, the data and reports obtained by the organization were actually bought at a high price. Institutions have their ownership, and the assets belonging to the company cannot be transferred at will, which can be regarded as the fixed assets of the company. However, when the data comes from the experience in the implementation of organizational work, the word business can no longer be added to risk data or other data of the same category, nor can it be regarded as a business environment factor.

Next, let's talk about organizational process assets. Organizational process assets are plans, processes, policies, procedures and knowledge bases, which are unique and used by implementing organizations and will affect the management of specific projects. Organizational process assets include any artifacts, practices or knowledge from any (or all) project implementation organization that can be used to implement or manage projects, as well as experiences, lessons and historical information from previous projects of that organization. Organizational process assets may also include complete schedule, risk data and earned value data. Organizational process assets are inputs to many project management processes. Because organizational process assets exist in the organization, project team members can update and supplement organizational process assets as needed throughout the project.

Organizational process assets can be divided into the following two categories:

The first category: processes, policies and procedures;

Organize the processes and procedures used to perform the project work, including (but not limited to):

1, startup and planning

2. Guidelines and standards, which are used to adjust the standard processes and procedures of the organization to meet the specific requirements of the project;

3. Specific organizational standards, such as policies (such as human resources policies, health and safety policies, safety and confidentiality policies, quality policies, procurement policies and environmental policies);

4, product and project life cycle, as well as methods and procedures (such as project management methods, evaluation indicators, process audit, improvement objectives, checklists, standardized process definitions used within the organization);

5. Templates (such as project management plan, project document, project register, report format, contract template, risk classification, risk description template, probability and impact definition, probability and impact matrix, and interested party register template);

6. Pre-approved supplier list and various contract agreement types (such as lump sum contract, cost compensation contract and quantity contract).

7. Implementation and monitoring:

8. Change control procedures, including steps to be followed when modifying organizational standards, policies, plans and procedures (or any project documents), and how to approve and confirm changes;

9. Tracking matrix;

10, financial control procedures (such as periodic reports, necessary expenses and payment review, accounting standards and standard contract terms, etc.). );

1 1. Problem and defect management procedures (such as defining problem and defect control, identifying and solving problems and defects, and tracking action plans).

12, availability control and allocation management of resources;

13 communication requirements of the organization (such as available communication technologies, allowed communication media, record-keeping policies, video conferencing, collaboration tools and security requirements);

14. Procedures for determining work priorities, approving work and issuing work authorization;

15, templates (such as risk register, problem log and change log);

16, standardized guide, work instruction, proposal review standard and performance measurement standard;

17, verification and confirmation procedures for products, services or achievements.

18. Guidelines or requirements for project closure (such as final project audit, project evaluation, acceptance of deliverables, contract closure, resource allocation and knowledge transfer to production and/or operation departments).

The second category: organizational knowledge base.

Knowledge base used by the organization to access information, including (but not limited to):

1. Configuration management knowledge base, including software and hardware component versions, and standards, policies, procedures and benchmarks of any project documents of all implementing organizations;

2, financial database, including working hours, actual costs, budget and cost overruns and other information;

3. Knowledge base of historical information and lessons learned (such as project records and documents, complete project ending information and documents, information about previous project selection decision results and past project performance, and information obtained from risk management activities);

4. Problems and defects management database, including the status of problems and defects, control information, solutions and results of related actions;

5. Measurement index database, which is used to collect and provide measurement data of processes and products;

6. Project documents of previous projects (such as scope, cost, progress and performance measurement benchmarks, project calendar, project progress network diagram, risk register, risk report and register of interested parties).

It is not difficult to find that organizational process assets also contain many policies, procedures and databases. This part has a lot of overlap with business environment factors. In fact, it is not difficult to tell the difference after mastering the principle. Generally speaking, business environment is the environment that restricts project management. Project management team and implementation team can only follow him in planning and management, and will be restricted by him everywhere, so it is difficult to change or influence environmental factors, whether internal or external. However, in a few cases, internal business environment factors may change after the project work, such as human resources status. Through the project construction, the skill level of personnel may change, thus actually updating the human resource decomposition structure, but the human resource decomposition structure belongs to the company's human resource situation and is classified as the operating environment factor.

But this happens only in a few cases. Therefore, the procedures, policies and processes we see in the organizational process assets are only applicable to this project (single project). The project team has the right to intervene or make updates after the project is completed, but the processes, policies, procedures and standards in business environment factors usually come from organizational governance and project governance. All projects in the organization must be followed, and those projects that cannot be adversely affected by a single project are usually classified as business environment factors and cannot be put into organizational process assets.

The above is the explanation of business environment factors and organizational process assets in PMP certification.

Guangzhou Xianghui Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (Xianghui Tiandi) is original, and reprinting is prohibited.

Edited on 2019-01-10.

The copyright belongs to the author. Apply for reprinting

Share to

PMP project management

comment

Add comments ...