Will you start a new project in a country which is badly affected by a pandemic?. Will you not check for the medical facilities available before investing?.
These days large project endeavors looks similar to enterprises and PM plays the CEO role within projects. Large projects are getting more and more complex and project failures will eat into the profitability of the enterprise, if not wiping out the enterprise. Understanding the project enterprise’s environmental factors upfront will help to factor them into Project plans.
Here are some examples;
- Labour laws
- Bank interest rates
- National holidays
- Manpower costs
- Political stability
- Climatic conditions
- Probability for extreme climatic conditions
- Local culture
- Government rules
- Transport facilities
- Geographical conditions
- Trade unions
- Manpower availability
- Corruption levels
- Historical data
- Legal systems
- Health care systems
- Health and safety norms
- Payment terms
- Payroll norms
- Taxation etc
These are just examples. A good understanding of the Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF) will help to estimate, plan, execute, monitor, control and close projects successfully. EEF impacts almost every aspect of the project. An advance knowledge of EEF will help the project stakeholders steer the project successfully.