Project Planning What is PESTLE Analysis? Published on 02 June 2009 - Revised on You might know it as PEST - with just two more letters added on. PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental. It's a way of prompting thinking about the external environment. It's normally used to look at an entire organization or department, but it is perfectly feasible to use PESTLE on a project as well. In fact, it is a good way of ensuring you have captured all potential risks and issues.External factors can also be a source of constraints, especially in the legal arena, so it can help at all stages of writing the project initiation document. Here are some PESTLE questions to ask yourself when you are planning your project: Political Who is your project sponsor and what is their power and influence reach in the organisation? How is the project sponsor viewed by other areas of the business? What third parties are involved? Who are the other key stakeholders and how do they fit into the organisation? Economic What is your project budget and is it likely to be cut half-way through the project? How do you get things paid? Can you sign expenditure off yourself? What is your project sponsor's approach to budgetary tolerance? What are the financial calculations required for a robust business case (IRR, ROI etc) and is your project constantly being reviewed against them? What is the procedure for financial accountability of benefits? Sociological What is the group that your project will impact? What are the training needs of that group? What is the composition and morale of your project team? Technological How will you manage scope changes when new developments arise? What technology do you need to support your team's ways of working? What technology are you deploying as part of the project and how will this be done? What are the technical constraints you need to work within? Legal What health and safety regulations do you need to follow? What other legislation do you need to follow? What other regulatory frameworks do you need to work within? What are the information governance and data protection elements that you need to safeguard during the project, including any test data used during testing? Environmental Is your project management 'green' (not printing out emails etc)? What is the environmental impact of your project and how, if at all, do you intend to address that? Rate this article: 3.3 Print ElizabethHarrin Elizabeth Harrin, FAPM, is an author and mentor who helps project managers and their teams get more done with less stress. She does that through straight-talking, real-world advice, based on her 20 years in project management roles. She also writes the award-winning blog, A Girl’s Guide to Project Management. Full biography Full biography Elizabeth Harrin, FAPM, is an author and mentor who helps project managers and their teams get more done with less stress. She does that through straight-talking, real-world advice, based on her 20 years in project management roles. Elizabeth has written 5 books about project management: Shortcuts to Success: Project Management in the Real World (which was a finalist in the Management Book of the Year Awards 2014 and now in its second edition), Collaboration Tools for Project Managers, Communicating Change, Project Manager, and Customer-Centric Project Management. She also writes the award-winning blog, A Girl’s Guide to Project Management. You can find Elizabeth online at GirlsGuideToPM.com or on Twitter @girlsguidetopm. Elizabeth holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University. She supports project managers through her mentoring programme, Project Management Rebels, and also contributes to a variety of other initiatives including sitting on the advisory board for the RISE Being Lean and Seen programme at Liverpool John Moores University. Elizabeth has led a variety of IT, process improvement and business change projects including an ERP deployment and compliance initiatives. She spent eight years working in financial services (including two based in Paris, France) and 12 years in healthcare. Elizabeth lives with her family in the UK. x Contact author Google Plus Facebook page Twitter Linked In
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