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PMP lesson · Project Initiation & Business Value · The organisation around the project · lesson 1 of 4 · about 6 minutes

EEFs and OPAs: the environment and the organisation's assets

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Goal: After this lesson you can tell enterprise environmental factors from organisational process assets, and use OPAs to plan better and improve them for the future.

1The situation

Starting from zero, again

A new PM at the integrator is planning a robot cell. There is no risk register template, no lessons-learned repository and no estimating database. Every previous project built its own tools from scratch, and made the same mistakes.

Meanwhile, a new provincial regulation adds documentation requirements, the region is short of certified welders, and the company culture expects every decision to go to the director.

Some of these things the PM can use and improve. Others the PM must simply work within.

2Two kinds of influences

Every project is shaped by its surroundings:

EEFs
Environment
Conditions you can't control directly: laws, markets, culture, infrastructure, staff availability.
OPAs
Organisation's assets
Templates, procedures, policies, lessons learned, historical data you can use.
Quick test: can the organisation's project people use and update it as an asset? → OPA. Is it a condition around the project? → EEF.

3EEFs vs OPAs

Enterprise environmental factors (EEFs)

Conditions you can't control directly that influence the project.

Internal: culture, structure, available staff and skills, IT systems, risk appetite.
External: laws and regulations, market conditions, standards, weather, politics, exchange rates.

Organisational process assets (OPAs)

The organisation's own resources you can use and improve.

Processes and templates: policies, procedures, checklists, templates.
Knowledge: lessons learned, historical data (estimates, defect rates), past project files.
Work within EEFs; use and improve OPAs.

4How it looks on the exam

Exam-style question 1. A newly appointed project manager finds that the organisation has no risk register template, no lessons-learned repository and no estimating database. What should the project manager do?
A. Create the tools needed for this project and contribute them, with lessons learned, to the organisation's process assets
B. Postpone planning until the PMO creates templates
C. Copy a previous employer's templates without adaptation
D. Manage risks and estimates informally
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: A.
In simple English
No organisational process assets exist.
What is the question really asking?
The right action.
Key words / trigger
“no … template, no … repository”
PMP logic
Create and tailor what's needed, then contribute it back as OPAs.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
Waiting for the PMO seems correct in a structured company, but it delays the project.

5Remember this

Your memory card

  • EEFs = conditions around the project (laws, markets, culture, infrastructure)
  • OPAs = the organisation's templates, procedures, lessons, historical data
  • Work within EEFs; use and improve OPAs
  • No OPAs? Create, tailor and contribute back
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
  • the rest of the lesson (Use and improve OPAs)
  • a worked example
  • the common traps (wrong vs right)
  • 2 exam-style questions with the decode
  • a 3-question quick check
Open the full lesson → Create a free account
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