Subtitles of the Movie

In the previous movie we wrapped up the Internal Factors within the Project Environment. Now let's look at our External Factors. These factors can greatly influence the project although the project is not a direct result of these factors. We have Natural Environment, Financial and Economical Situation, the Industry, Human and Health Safety, Political and Legal. All of these factors influence the project and make up the External Environment. Let's quickly go through these items. By Natural Environment I'm referring to things like weather, natural disasters and other obstacles resulting from weather occurrences. If the location of the project being conducted in is susceptible to thunderstorms that tend to cause electricity outages, that needs to be accounted for in the project. The project team needs to be aware that this is the environment that the project must function in. These are also factors that must be accounted for within the Schedule. This also involves taking into consideration the local ecology, the physical geography and understanding whether there are restrictions such as protected areas. Understanding the Financial and Economical situation is certainly important especially during times of recession and rapid growth. Imagine how the real estate industry over the past few years how quickly it rose and just how quickly it dropped. Anything happening within the Industry becomes part of your Project Environment. Although we touched on Competition as an Internal Factor impacting the project's environment, knowing what the Competition is doing is also tied into Industry. You'll notice that some of these are intertwined. An example is Human and Health Safety. You can look at this from a Legal standpoint - human and health safety regulations. You can also look at this from the standpoint of existing conditions where the project is taking place. Political factors to keep in mind include international and local laws, customs, whether the political climate can affect your project, et cetera. This is something that really needs to be considered in off-shore projects where you may not be familiar with how the system works. And Legal includes several items as well and can be tied into Political factors. Intellectual property rights would be an example of this. Most External Factors noted here are self-explanatory. You can imagine all types of scenarios that impact the Project Environment and some of these are especially important when the project involves off-shore locations. I worked on several projects abroad where the social and political climate had to be carefully assessed. Before closing out this movie I'd like to mention that managing the factors of the Project Environment calls into play a Project Manager and a Scheduler's soft skills such as being able to influence these factors when possible, being able to manage Stakeholders and even being able to manage the Schedule to keep communication flowing on multiple ends. As a final comment I'll reiterate that being aware of the Internal and External Factors that exist within the Project Environment and learning how to manage and influence these factors where possible is important to project and project scheduling management. And that wraps up our review of the Project Environment.