What are Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF), Organisational Process Assets (OPA), and what is the difference between them?
Enterprise Environmental Factors and Organisational Process Assets are very frequently mentioned in the PMBOK Guide, and these are input into almost all processes in it; therefore, it is very necessary for every PMP Certification aspirant to have a clear understanding about these topics before sitting for the PMP certification exam. You may or may not see the any direct questions in the PMP examination on these topics but having clear comprehension about EEF and OPA will certainly help you a lot.
In this blog post, I’m going to explain to you that what these two really are, the differences between them, and how they influence the various processes in project management.
Environment: The definition of Environment is “Relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition”.
From the definition itself it is clear that the Environment is a condition which influences us or our behavior in a certain way.
For example, in cold weather we need to wear woolen clothes to keep ourselves safe from the cold. Hence, cold weather is the Environment which forces us to wear woolen clothes. This is the impact of this cold environment on us.
In the same way, Enterprise Environmental Factors influence the project’s outcome, and organisations have to live and work within it. Enterprise Environmental Factors can be either internal or external.
Some examples of Enterprise Environmental Factors are:
- organizational culture
- type of organization structure
- internal & external political conditions
- infrastructure
- government regulations
- market conditions etc.
Assets: The definition of Assets is “A useful or valuable thing or property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies.”
Assets are something that we can own, keep and use for our benefits; for example, we can have a car by which we can move around, we can have house to live in, computers to work on, etc. These things; i.e. car, house, computers, etc are called Assets.
In the same manner, organisations also have Assets, which they call Organisational Process Assets, and are stored in some central repository so that they could be used whenever required by anyone.
For example:
- policies
- procedures
- standard templates
- stakeholder register
- risk register
- lesson learned
- historical information, etc.
Organisational Process Assets influence the project success, and it keeps growing as the organisation getting larger.
In project management, a very famous saying is “why re-invent the wheel,” which means that if we have something available to us, we don’t have to remake it again.
For example, let’s say you have to find risks by using a risks check list. Are you going to create a check list from scratch on blank paper or will you look into any similar past project records to find it out? Of course you will go for the second option and find the risk check list from the central repository and then customize it as per the project requirements. This will save you a lot of time.
In project management, Organisational Process Assets are used very extensively. It is the responsibility of the project management team to look for any relevant documents in Organisational Process Assets before starting to build it from the beginning. Organisational Process Assets help organizations to continuously improve their processes, and also help the project team to learn best practices by sharing their collective knowledge base.
The point to note here is that Organisational Process Assets are always available to support the project team while Enterprise Environmental Factors can sometimes help the project and other times may hurt it.
Thanks much! Understood
You're welcome and thanks for stopping by at PMSC.
Same here. Understood !
Good job .. Well explained.. I have abt 2 weeks to go for my exam. Its great to read and understand the concepts..
I am glad that you liked it.
Good luck for your exam preparation.
Thanks, your explaination is very easy to understand.
Our study group has a long debate regarding the difference between EEF and OAP.
Your article made it clear.
I am glad that my article helped you.
Thanks for your visit.
You simplify things very well. Wish I knew about this site earlier..
Thank you VERY much. Keep up the good work, I am sure it’s going to help others as well.
Thanks for visiting and your comment.
Thanks, You had made things so clear and understandable…
Thank you!…for explaining this so clearly.
You’re welcome Kupa.
Fahad, How do I categorize following items whether they are belong to EEF/ OPA
1. PMIS – Project Management Information Systems e.g. Project Enterprise Solutions, Microsoft Project
3. Quality Controlling Systems – Defect Tracking, QA tools
4. Environment and Legal Procedures (assumed that also belong EEF)
5. Any other organizational policies which are not directly relating to project environment.
Hello Janaka, as per my understanding, items can be categorized as follow:
PMIS -> Enterprise Environmental Factors
Quality Controlling Systems -> Enterprise Environmental Factors (Since it is a part of the EEF)
Environment and Legal Procedures ->Organisational Process Assets
Organisational Policies -> Organisational Process Assets
Hello Usmani,
please, to clarify concepts; can we say for example that:
PMIS -> EEF
but
PMIS Knowledge(as project application experience) -> OPA ??
Thanks
Knowledge is always tremendously useful an asset.
Hi
Can you please exlain PMIS – Project Management Information Systems in detail?
Appreciate your helpon this?
Thanks!
Hello Naveen,
PMIS or Project Management Information System is nothing but a organizational wise software or an automated tool which assist you in various project management related activities.
Hi Fahad,
Can you please explain what is Commercial database in the EEF.
Thanks!
As per my understanding Commercial Database is a database which is usually collected and maintained by some company. This database can be given to the clients for free or with some charge so that client could analyse the current situation or the market trend without going into lengthy process of collecting all data on their own.
Thank you Fahad- useful as always!
Can you please explain what a project life cycle is and how it related to the 5 process groups.
Does each project phase ave 5 process groups ?
Thank u again
Hello Maha,
You can say that product life cycle is the stages through which the product passes. Beginning from its idea, design, development, marketing and then selling to the market.
Project life cycle is a part of the product life cycle. For example, you can say that design and development of any machine is a project. Once you develop the machine, project finishes. Now, the rest product cycle starts; i.e. marketing, selling and customer service etc.
Every project phase has starting and finish; therefore, yes every project phase has all five process groups.
Hello Mr Usmani
I intend to take PMP on PMBOK 4 later this year, and stumbled upon your website, which has been extremely helpful. I wish I had known about this earlier.
A BIG Thank you for all the material your colleagues and you have put up, and I wish you the very best.
You’re welcome Gaurav, and thanks for visiting & liking my blog.
Great work Mr. Usmani.
PMIS -> Enterprise Environmental Factors
Quality Controlling Systems -> Enterprise Environmental Factors (Since it is a part of the EEF)
I understand the PMI calls PMIS and QCS Enterprise Environmental Factors but from a financial accounting definition perspective “”An asset is a resource controlled by the enterprise as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the enterprise.”
Thus, some PMIS and QCS and Infractructure can be considered assets. For instance, customized software for Accounting/Auditing Information System.
Thank you Mr JP for stopping by and providing the feedback on EEF from a financial accounting perspective.
Thank you so much for sharing. I refer to your blog so often for a better understanding of any PMP subjects.
Thank you Nasim for your visits to my blog.
Thank you. You have made it very clear to understand. And you are right, sometimes the best way to understand it is going back to its original definition. Thank you again!!
You’re welcome Matt!