Section 8 Project Environments

Question 1

Three types of environments projects operate in

Answer 1

Enterprise environmental factors - rules policies you must follow
Organizational process assets - forms created for you or software your company uses
Organizational systems - how work gets done in that structure, might have team members from all over the globe you might need to wait until they are all there, small companies are different

Question 2

What are the two enterprise environmental factors?

Answer 2

Internal - if you are required to behave a certain way how you behave in that organization
External - safety or laws on how you do things or a contract with a union you have to adhere to their rules, mostly laws and regulations

Question 3

What are Internal environmental factors?

Answer 3

Created by the organization and outside the project
Organizational culture, structure, and governance, leadership, vision, beliefs, the hierarchy of management, ethics, and organizational code of conduct expectations
The physical location of resources and facilities physical location of resources and worksites
The infrastructure of your organization - equipment facilities, tools, communication channels, technology, and the availability and capabilities of these resources
IT software, software for scheduling, configuring, online systems
Resources availability, people tools, equipment, facilities, materials. The internal processes to obtain resources such a procurement, contracting, and subcontractors
Employee capability - capabilities of the employees involved in the project

Question 4

What are the external environmental factors?

Answer 4

External factors, conditions, and regulations
Marketplace conditions the marketplace you operate within
Cultural influences and issues the political climate, customer perceptions, and news
Laws and regulations laws and regulations are external enterprise factors
Commercial databases, to help predict cost and schedule, risk studies, and benchmarking
Academic, info from academic studies, white papers, and other publications
Government and industry standards research for production, the products or services
Financial that span multiple countries exchange rates tariffs taxes
Physical enterprise environmental factors, weather the environment where the project is taking place.

Question 5

What are Organizational process assets?

Answer 5

Organizational process assets include organizational processes, policies, procedures, and items from a corporate knowledge base. Organizational process assets are grouped into two categories to consider: processes, policies and procedures, and organizational knowledge bases.

Standards, policies, and organizational procedures (financial controls for purchasing, accounting codes, and procurement processes)
Standardized guidelines and performance measurements (communications requirements such as standard forms, procedures, and reports)
Templates for project documents (processes for project activities, such as change control, closing communications, financial controls, and risk control procedures)
Guidelines for adapting project management processes (project closing procedures for acceptance, product validation, and evaluations)

Question 6

What is Initiating and planning?

Answer 6

Criteria for tailoring the organizations standard processes and procedures
Organizational standards, human resources policies, health and safety policies, security and confidentiality, quality, procurement, and environmental
Product and project life cycles - project management methods, estimation, metrics, process audits, improvement targets, checklists, and standardized process definitions
Templates such a PM plans, documents, registers, report formats, contract templates, risk categories, risk statement templates
Preapproved supplier lists and various types of contractual agreements

Question 7

What is Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling

Answer 7

Change control procedures
Procedures to modify project documents
Traceability matrices
Financial controls procedures
Issue and defect management procedures
Resource availability control and assignment management
Organizational communication requirements
Procedures for prioritizing, approving, and issuing work authorizations, templates (risk, register, issue, log, and change log)
Standardized guidelines, work instructions, proposal evaluation, criteria, and performance measurement criteria
Product, service, or result verification and validation procedures

Question 8

What is Organizational Knowledge Repositories?

Answer 8

Organizational knowledge repositories are the databases, files, and historical information that you can use to help better plan and manage your projects. This is an organizational process asset that is created internally to your organization through the ongoing work of operations and other projects.

Question 9

What is Organizational System?

Answer 9

A system can create things by working with multiple components that the individual components could not create if they worked alone. The structure of the organization and the governance framework creates constraints that affect how the project manager makes decisions within the project. The organizational system directly affects how the project manager utilizes their power, influence, leadership, and even political capital, to get things done in the environment.

Question 10

What is Governance framework?

Answer 10

Governance framework describes the rules, policies, and procedures that people within an organization abide by. Governance framework addresses the organization, but also address portfolios, programs, and projects. Regarding portfolios, programs, and projects the governance framework addresses alignment with organizational vision, risk management, performance factors, and communication.

Question 11

What is Balanced matrix structure?

Answer 11

An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers and the project managers share the project power.

Question 12

Cultural norms

Answer 12

Cultural norms describe the culture and the styles of an organization. Cultural norms, such as work ethics, hours, view of authority, and shared values, can affect how the project is managed.

Question 13

Enterprise environmental factors

Answer 13

Conditions that affect how the project manager may manage the project. Enterprise environmental factors come from within the project, such as policy, or they be external to the organization, such as law or regulation.

Question 14

Functional structure

Answer 14

An organization that is divided into functions, and each employee has one clear functional manager. Each department acts independently of the other departments. A project manager in this structure has little to no power and may be called a project coordinator.

Question 15

Hybrid structure

Answer 15

An organization that creates a blend of the functional, matrix, and project- oriented structures.

Question 16

Multidivisional structure

Answer 16

Describe organizations that have duplication of efforts within the organization, but not within each department or division of the organization. Project manager has little authority in this structure and the functional manager controls the project budget.

Question 17

Organic or simple

Answer 17

Describes a loosely organized business or organization. There likely aren’t big formal departments and people work alongside one another regardless of roles and titles. The project manager likely has little control over the project resources and may not be called a project manager.

Question 18

Project management office (PMO)

Answer 18

A business unit that centralizes the operations and procedures of all projects within the organization. The PMO can be supportive, controlling, or directive.

Question 19

Project-oriented structure

Answer 19

An organization that assigns a project team to one project for the duration of the project life cycle. The project manager has high-to-almost-complete project power.

Question 20

Strong matrix structure

Answer 20

An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers have less project power than the project manager.

Question 21

Virtual organization

Answer 21

Uses a network structure to communicate and interact with other groups and departments. A point of contact exists for each department and these department point of contact receive and send all messages for the department.

Question 22

Weak matrix structure

Answer 22

An organization where organizational resources are pooled into one project team, but the functional managers have more project power than the project manager.