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Enterprise environmental factors (EEFs) refer to conditions, not under the control of the project team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project. Enterprise environmental factors are considered inputs to most planning processes, may enhance or constrain project management options, and may have a positive or negative influence on the outcome.
EEFs vary widely in type or nature. These factors need to be considered if the project is to be effective. EEFs include, but are not limited to, the factors below.
The following EEFs are internal to the organization:
• Organizational culture, structure, and governance. Examples include vision, mission, values, beliefs, cultural norms, leadership styles, hierarchy and authority relationships, organizational styles, ethics, and codes of conduct.
• Geographic distribution of facilities and resources. Examples include factory locations, virtual teams, shared systems, and cloud computing.
• Infrastructure. Examples include existing facilities, equipment, organizational telecommunications channels, information technology hardware, availability, and capacity. •Information technology software. Examples include scheduling software tools, configuration management systems, web interfaces to other online automated systems, and work authorization systems.
• Resource availability. Examples include contracting and purchasing constraints, approved providers and subcontractors, and collaboration agreements.
• Employee capability. Examples include existing human resources expertise, skills, competencies, and specialized knowledge.
The following EEFs are external to the organization:
• Marketplace conditions. Examples include competitors, market share brand recognition, and trademarks.
• Social and cultural influences and issues. Examples include political climate, codes of conduct, ethics, and perceptions.
• Legal restrictions. Examples include country or local laws and regulations related to security, data protection, business conduct, employment, and procurement.
• Commercial databases. Examples include benchmarking results, standardized cost estimating data, industry risk study information, and risk databases.
• Academic research. Examples include industry studies, publications, and benchmarking results.
• Government or industry standards. Examples include regulatory agency regulations and standards related to products, production, environment, quality, and workmanship.
• Financial considerations. Examples include currency exchange rates, interest rates, inflation rates, tariffs, and geographic location.

Key concepts for Project Communications Management include the following:
• Communication is the process of exchanging information, intended or involuntary, between individuals and/or groups. Communications describes the means by which information can be sent or received, either through activities, such as meetings and presentations, or artifacts, such as emails, social media, project reports, or project documentation. Project Communications Management addresses both the process of communication and management of communications activities and artifacts.
• Effective communication creates a bridge between diverse stakeholders whose differences will generally have an impact or influence upon the project execution or outcome, so it is vital that all communication is clear and concise.
• Communication activities include internal and external, formal and informal, and written and oral forms of communication.
• Communication can be directed upward to senior management stakeholders, downward to team members, or horizontally to peers. This will affect the format and content of the message.
• Communication takes place consciously or unconsciously through words, facial expressions, gestures, and other actions. It includes developing strategies and plans for suitable communications artifacts, and the application of skills to enhance effectiveness.
• Effort is required to prevent misunderstandings and miscommunication, and the methods, messengers, and messages should be carefully selected.
• Effective communication depends on defining the purpose of communication, understanding the receiver of the communications, and monitoring effectiveness.

(Three-Point Estimating)
The accuracy of single-point duration estimates may be improved by considering estimation uncertainty and risk. Using three-point estimates helps define an approximate range for an activity's duration:
• Most likely (tM). This estimate is based on the duration of the activity, given the resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for the activity, dependencies on other participants, and interruptions.
• Optimistic (tO). The activity duration based on analysis of the best-case scenario for the activity.
• Pessimistic (tP). The duration based on analysis of the worst-case scenario for the activity.

Depending on the assumed distribution of values within the range of the three estimates, the expected duration, tE, can be calculated. One commonly used formula is triangular distribution: tE = (tO + tM + tP) / 3. Triangular distribution is used when there are insufficient historical data or when using judgmental data. Duration estimates based on three points with an assumed distribution provide an expected duration and clarify the range of uncertainty around the expected duration.

(Advertising)
Existing lists of potential sellers often can be expanded by placing advertisements in general circulation publications, such as selected newspapers or in specialty trade publications. Some organizations use online resources to communicate solicitations to the vendor community. Some government jurisdictions require public advertising of certain types of procurement items, and most government jurisdictions require public advertising or online posting of pending government contracts.

Key concepts for Project Scope Management include:
• Scope can refer to product scope (the features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result), or to project scope (the work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions).
• Project life cycles range along a continuum from predictive to adaptive or agile. In a life cycle that uses a predictive approach, the project deliverables are defined at the beginning of the project and any changes to the scope are progressively managed. In an adaptive or agile approach, the deliverables are developed over multiple iterations where a detailed scope is defined and approved for each iteration when it begins.
• Completion of the project scope is measured against the project management plan. Completion of the product scope is measured against the product requirements.

(Critical Path Method)
The critical path method is used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model. This schedule network analysis technique calculates the early start, early finish, late start, and late finish dates for all activities without regard for any resource limitations by performing a forward and backward pass analysis through the schedule network, as shown in Figure 6-18. In this example, the longest path includes activities A, C, and D, and therefore, the sequence of A-C-D is the critical path. The critical path is the sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible project duration. The resulting early and late start and finish dates are not necessarily the project schedule; rather, they indicate the time periods within which the activity could be executed, using the parameters entered in the schedule model for activity durations, logical relationships, leads, lags, and other known constraints. The critical path method is used to calculate the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model.

On any network path, the schedule flexibility is measured by the amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint, and is termed total float. A CPM critical path is normally characterized by zero total float on the critical path. As implemented with PDM sequencing, critical paths may have positive, zero, or negative total float depending on constraints applied.

(Lessons Learned Register)
The lessons learned register can include the category and description of the situation. The lessons learned register may also include the impact, recommendations, and proposed actions associated with the situation. The lessons learned register may record challenges, problems, realized risks and opportunities, or other content as appropriate.

The lessons learned register is created as an output of this process early in the project. Thereafter, it is used as an input and updated as an output in many processes throughout the project. The persons or teams involved in the work are also involved in capturing the lessons learned. Knowledge can be documented using videos, pictures, audios, or other suitable means that ensure the efficiency of the lessons captured.

At the end of a project or phase, the information is transferred to an organizational process asset called a lessons learned repository.

(Communication Models)
The components of the basic communication model need to be considered when project communications are discussed. As part of the communications process, the sender is responsible for the transmission of the message, ensuring that the information being communicated is clear and complete, and confirming the communication is correctly understood. The receiver is responsible for ensuring that the information is received in its entirety, understood correctly, and acknowledged or responded to appropriately.

Listening is an important part of communication. Listening techniques, both active and passive, give the user insight to problem areas, negotiation and conflict management strategies, decision making, and problem resolution.

(Manage Communications)
Techniques and considerations for effective communications management include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Communications technology
• Communication skills
- Communication competence
- Feedback
- Nonverbal
- Presentations
• Project management information systems (PMIS) •Project reporting
• Interpersonal and team skills
- Active listening
- Conflict management
- Cultural awareness
- Meeting management
- Networking
- Political awareness
• Meetings

(Project Quality Management)
• Stakeholder engagement. Is there a collaborative environment with stakeholders and suppliers?
• Policy compliance and auditing. What quality policies and procedures exist in the organization? What quality tools, techniques, and templates are used in the organization?
• Project complexity, uncertainty, product novelty. These are important concepts in project management; however, they are not typically tailored.
• Standards and regulatory compliance. Are there any specific quality standards in the industry that need to be applied? Are there any specific governmental, legal, or regulatory constraints that need to be taken into consideration?

Leadership skills involve the ability to guide, motivate, and direct a team. These skills may include demonstrating essential capabilities such as negotiation, resilience, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. Projects are becoming increasingly more complicated with more and more businesses executing their strategy through projects. Project management is more than just working with numbers, templates, charts, graphs, and computing systems. A common denominator in all projects is people. People can be counted, but they are not numbers.

Key concepts for Project Procurement Management include the following:
• The project manager should be familiar enough with the procurement process to make intelligent decisions regarding contracts and contractual relationships.
• Procurement involves agreements that describe the relationship between a buyer and a seller. Agreements can be simple or complex, and the procurement approach should reflect the degree of complexity. An agreement can be a contract, a service-level agreement, an understanding, a memorandum of agreement, or a purchase order.
• Agreements must comply with local, national, and international laws regarding contracts.
• The project manager should ensure that all procurements meet the specific needs of the project, while working with procurement specialists to ensure that organizational policies are followed.
• The legally binding nature of an agreement means it will be subjected to a more extensive approval process, often involving the legal department, to ensure that it adequately describes the products, services, or results that the seller is agreeing to provide, while being in compliance with the laws and regulations regarding procurements.
• A complex project may involve multiple contracts simultaneously or in sequence. The buyer- seller relationship may exist at many levels on any one project, and between organizations internal to and external to the acquiring organization.

(Project Schedule)
Also known as Gantt charts, bar charts represent schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates. Bar charts are relatively easy to read and are commonly used. Depending on the audience, float can be depicted or not. For control and management communications, the broader, more comprehensive summary activity is used between milestones or across multiple interdependent work packages and is displayed in bar chart reports.

(Organizational Process Assets)
Fixed-price contracts. This category of contracts involves setting a fixed total price for a defined product, service, or result to be provided. These contracts should be used when the requirements are well defined and no significant changes to the scope are expected. Types of fixed-price contracts include:
• Firm fixed price (FFP). The most commonly used contract type is the FFP. It is favored by most buying organizations because the price for goods is set at the outset and not subject to change unless the scope of work changes.
• Fixed price incentive fee (FPIF). This fixed-price arrangement gives the buyer and seller some flexibility in that it allows for deviation from performance, with financial incentives tied to achieving agreed-upon metrics. Typically, such financial incentives are related to cost, schedule, or technical performance of the seller. Under FPIF contracts, a price ceiling is set, and all costs above the price ceiling are the responsibility of the seller.
• Fixed price with economic price adjustments (FPEPA). This type is used whenever the seller's performance period spans a considerable period of years, or if the payments are made in a different currency. It is a fixed-price contract, but with a special provision allowing for predefined final adjustments to the contract price due to changed conditions, such as inflation changes or cost increases (or decreases) for specific commodities.

A project business case is an important document that highlights the business rationality for the project, including the objectives and the reason for the project, and helps define success at the project closure. The project business case can be used throughout the project life cycle, especially when there are situations that require a review and understanding of the business reasons for the project.

Assumption. A factor in the planning process that is considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.

(Data Gathering)
Data gathering techniques that can be used for this process include, but are not limited to:
• Benchmarking. Benchmarking involves comparing actual or planned project practices or the project's quality standards to those of comparable projects to identify best practices, generate ideas for improvement, and provide a basis for measuring performance. Benchmarked projects may exist within the performing organization or outside of it, or can be within the same application area or other application area. Benchmarking allows for analogies from projects in a different application area or different industries to be made.

The words leadership and management are often used interchangeably. However, they are not synonymous. The word management is more closely associated with directing another person to get from one point to another using a known set of expected behaviors. In contrast, leadership involves working with others through discussion or debate in order to guide them from one point to another.

The method that a project manager chooses to employ reveals a distinct difference in behavior, self-perception, and project role. Project managers need to employ both leadership and management in order to be successful. The skill is in finding the right balance for each situation. The way in which management and leadership are employed often shows up in the project manager's leadership style.

(Plan Communications Management inputs)
• Project charter
• Project management plan
• Resource management plan
• Stakeholder engagement plan
• Project documents
• Requirements documentation
• Stakeholder register
• Enterprise environmental factors
• Organizational process assets

Control Scope: Outputs
.1 Work performance information
.2 Change requests
.3 Project management plan updates
• Scope management plan
• Scope baseline
• Schedule baseline
• Cost baseline
.4 Project documents updates
• Lessons learned register
• Requirements documentation
• Requirements traceability matrix