Great summary Devin. I would change one thing for clarity:

"...I would say that any POLICY (program or procedure) by the company is an OPA but the EXTERNAL constraints (REGULATIONS, CONSENSUS STANDARDS, etc.)....become EEFs..."

I live in a very regulated world, Companies do not make standards or regulations, they make corporate policy. and procedures.
Just my 2-cents worth.

Harry

The PMI guide to Business Analysis actually does a much better job of explaining Human Resources Management (HRM) policies than does the PMBOK. They are actually listed as both an EFF and an OPA. For an OPA, HRM are obvious specific organizational standards developed and tailored by the company.

As an EFF, HRM becomes a constraint or a factor once adopted for the project, including but not limited to: staffing and retention guidelines, performance reviews and training records, reward and overtime policy, cost per skill type, and time tracking.

If I were rewriting the PMBOK, I would say that any standard developed by the company would be an OPA, but the constraints and factors of that policy become EFFs once they begin to effect your project (such as limiting a reward mechanism).

I believe on the exam there were no muddy waters when it came to differentiating between an OPA and an EFF.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Harry!

Pang,

There seems to be a nuanced difference when it comes to human resources and the other areas, of which I do not fully understand. With respect to health, safety and environment, there are (US) regulations stating that you will have a plan and what the plan must cover, but the regulations are silent on HOW the plan will be implemented with any one employer. In that respect, the regulation is an EEF, the company program is an OPA.

With respect to quality, there are no regulations but there are consensus industry standards (think ISO, ANSI, etc.) that are recognized best practices but generally unenforceable; so again the company must develop it's own program. There again, the consensus standard is an EEF and the corporate policy is an OPA.

Human resource management is specifically called out in the PMBOK as an EEF. Personally, I just went with it and moved on.

A more experienced moderator may have more helpful advice here.

Harry

Harry,

Should health and safety policies, security and confidentiality policies, quality policies, procurement policies and environmental policies be under EEFs? What kind of policies are classified as OPAs?

Regards

Pang:

I also didn't like the double use of the word "policy" in the definitions, but here's an explanation that makes sense to me:

Human Resource polices are often based on regulations which are EEFs. The company has their hands tied with a lot of the HR regulation.

Hope that helps

Harry