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Project Environment

The influence of infrastructure and facility building on the physical environment is becoming more recognized and concerned. Fortunately, today's technical disciplines in charge of such work are becoming more aware of the need to mitigate the negative effects of their undertakings. The Project Manager, too, must be concerned with the project's technology and manage it properly. This is true for both the project's execution and short-term practical construction implications, as well as its conceptual development and long-term consequences.

Today's Project Manager, on the other hand, must be aware of the project's cultural, organizational, and social contexts. So, what is the project environment? Identifying project stakeholders and their potential to influence the project's success is part of comprehending what is project environment. This entails collaborating with others to produce the most outstanding outcomes, particularly in highly technical and complicated contexts like those seen in current building projects. Therefore, it is crucial that the Project Manager and the project team feel at ease in their cultural, organizational, and social environments, as well as sympathetic to them.

Consequently, there is an opportunity to positively influence the project environment, resulting in a better reception of the change that the project is intended to bring about. Some of the stakeholders, for example, will undoubtedly demonstrate their customary opposition to change. Others might have personal or organizational goals that are only tangentially tied to the project. If the challenges are accordingly identified at the early stages, be dealt with proactively, reducing the risks that might otherwise jeopardize the project's success. If you don't adopt this method, your project will almost certainly fail.

Influencing the Cultural Environment of the Project

The Project Manager of a successful project will grasp the importance of influencing the project's cultural environment for the project stakeholders' advantage. Every project team member, and indeed every member of the workforce, must be made to believe that every other project stakeholder is equally as essential as they are. It entails instilling a global attitude of "We care!" and a dedication to service, even if it is painful at times. It also entails understanding what is project environment in which every decision and action is made with the goal of improving the stakeholder experience above what it would have been if the project had not been done.

Rather than obsessing about computer printouts and weekly progress reports, it necessitates a focus on the quality of the stakeholder's experience at every level of the project. This connection replicates the Project Manager/team relationship, so it's obvious where to start. Because solid Project Management methods may be attained in the short and long term via solid team interaction, the Project Manager may develop productive connections with team members by attending to what they require in order to fulfill their different contributions. These qualities of cooperation and support as a team are eventually passed on to the project's stakeholders. This uplifting atmosphere is seldom overlooked.

When creating Project Management strategies at the start of the project, the project's executive should realize the critical role that human resources development, particularly Project Management training, may play in strengthening the project's cultural environment. Such training is an effective tool for increasing project expertise and commitment, boosting team performance, and ultimately improving project quality.

Internal Project Management Strategies That Work

There could be a multitude of causes for a project's fiasco, some of which are technical and others which are management. Even technological failures, however, are often linked back to a failure on the part of the project's senior management to identify and address these inherent managerial risks. On the other hand, it is likely that the majority of ostensibly successful enterprises do not represent their full potential.

A number of criteria have been associated with successful projects based on project experience. While these requirements do not ensure future project success, their absence may likely result in sub-optimal results, if not outright failure. The Project's Executive plays a critical part in the project's success and should insist on the following:

• Executive Support: Through active sponsorship and control, the executive must clearly show support for the Project Management philosophy.
• External Authority: In interacting with all partners, the Project Manager must be viewed as the authoritative representative and the sole point of official contact.
• Internal Authority: To guarantee that his/her criteria are met, the Project Manager must have the required management authority inside the company.
• Commitment Authority: The power and duty to govern the commitment of resources, including cash, within specified boundaries shall be given to the Project Manager. The outcomes of these judgments must be transparent and accountable.
• All Key Decisions Should Involve the Project Manager: No significant technical, cost, scheduling, or performance-related decisions should be arrived at without the notice, knowledge, and advice of the Project Manager.
• Project Team: The Project Manager should have a voice in the composition of the project team, as this will aid in obtaining personal dedication, support, and the appropriate level of service.
• Management Information Systems: Information and control systems for Project Management must be in place.
• Competence is required of the Project Manager and the team members. The project's other functional workers must likewise be competent.

External Project Environments

External occurrences on specific projects catch the Project Manager and their team off guard and are therefore seen as roadblocks to development. However, as previously said, projects are often only possible due to the external environment. Thus, the project team must know that they also are sensitive to it. 

What is the external project environment?

It comprises the project's established and cutting-edge state-of-the-art technologies, consumers and rivals, geographical, climatic, social, economic, and political surroundings, and almost anything else that might influence its success. These issues may have an impact on the Project Manager's primary tasks of planning, organizing, staffing, and directing.

This external project environment is made up of a complex web of interconnected interactions that are continually reacting to the project as it takes shape. In contrast, most projects, especially infrastructure projects, are designed to have an influence on the project environment in some manner. As a result, these interdependencies must be considered in order for the project to be successful in the end.

Even more importantly, the elements mentioned above have a tendency to change throughout the course of a project's life cycle, particularly if the project is phased in and completed over many years. As a consequence of the project environment, there is a significant level of uncertainty or risk around it. In fact, the more reliance there is, the more uncertainty there is, and the greater the task for the Project Manager and the team.

Obviously, the setting for each project will be different. In actuality, it is likely to be decided primarily by three factors: the project's product or service, the technology and the method in which it is used, and the project's geographical location.

The project team must learn to interact frequently with the individuals and institutions that make up the most essential elements of the project's external environment in order to identify potential difficulties arising from the project's stakeholders, assess their likelihood of occurrence, and try to head them off in advance. Together with the project's sponsors, owners, and users, these individuals make up the project's direct and indirect stakeholders.

Creating a Healthy Stakeholder Environment

Adopting a good stakeholder environment is similar to influencing the project's cultural environment, which was defined above as a matter of developing the proper mindset. Perhaps the simplest way to express this mindset is to flip the typical organizational chart hierarchy.

To put it another way, the project stakeholders are at the top of the chart, then the front-line project team members, and finally the Project Manager. Perhaps the project team will be better seen as a true service organization, motivated to complete the given project with absolute perfection, both in terms of perception and reality.

Learn how to understand the role of various stakeholders and how to use this information in order to enhance the way in which the information is received as well as the way in which it is perceived. Identify the true nature of each stakeholder group's business and their consequent interest in the project. Understand how motivated they are and how they behave. Assess how they may react to various approaches. Learn about Project Management's role in reacting to the project's stakeholders' motivations. Identify the main areas that will have the most influence on the project's success.

Always keep in mind that even a tiny stakeholder group might find the project's "fatal defect," which could put the project to a halt!

Identifying Project Participants

A stakeholder analysis is one method for efficiently dealing with the external project environment. The goal of such an analysis would be to first identify all prospective stakeholders who may have an effect on the project and then to assess their respective power to influence it.

Groupings of Stakeholders

Project stakeholders may be classified into one of the following categories:

• Those who are directly involved in the project, such as input suppliers, output consumers, and Project Managers;
• Those who have a considerable say over the various matters, including physical, social, economic, and legal situations;
• Those who have a nexus based on a hierarchical setup to the project, such as local, regional, and national government authorities; and
• Those individuals, groups, and associations who have an interest in the project.

Types of Stakeholders

After the different stakeholders have been identified, they may be categorized according to their respective capacity to affect the project. The stakeholders can be categorized into three types based on the nature of their personality: those who can be controlled, those who can be influenced, and those who need to be appreciated.

 Each stakeholder may then be ranked by degree of relevance based on their potential to affect the project within each area. Appropriate members of the project team may therefore prioritize their efforts in order to maintain the required stakeholder links, increasing the project's chances of success. The project team's work may be allocated to a particular group within the project team if the project is big enough or the stakeholder connections are strong enough.

Conclusion

Clearly, the Project Manager's role has expanded beyond directing events inside his or her own project organization. As many software products may have suggested, Project Management is no longer only the monitoring of time and expense via planning, scheduling, and resource-leveling. It also includes the Project Manager's many other organizational responsibilities as the project team's leader is insufficient.

All of these factors are critical, but they are insufficient in today's dynamic environment for effective and successful Project Management. The necessity to monitor the project's links to the external environment is as vital - and frequently more so to achieve a good project conclusion. This is particularly true for infrastructure projects that prioritize growth and innovation and must adapt to ever-faster change.

The rationale is straightforward. Every building project serves a certain function in relation to and within its surroundings. As a result, its design and execution must be sensitive to the environment, maximizing the benefits to all stakeholders as much as possible while avoiding negative consequences via conscious mitigation. Clearly, the Project Manager's performance within the broader question of “what is project environment” may make all the difference in the project's success or failure.

Reference

1. https://www.project-risk-manager.com/blog/the-importance-of-understanding-project-environment-and-context/
2. https://www.systemation.com/dont-forget-about-the-project-environment/
3. https://www.can-do.de/en/blog/project-environment-analysis-puma-how-you-correctly-raise-and-assess-expectations