Organizational Process Assets: An Overview

Organizations have assets, such as policies, processes, and strategies, that aid in accomplishing their goals. To help with project management, organizations use a variety of templates, contracts, registers, and assessment tools. In this article, we will define, provide some examples, and categorize Organizational Project Assets.

By
Visual PMP Academy
,
on
February 23, 2024

When managing a project, numerous things are required, whether they are human, financial, or infrastructure resources. In addition to these physical assets, an organization's performance is also determined by its intangible assets, consisting of specialized skills, improved processes, and acquired knowledge.

In a sense, assets are valuable and useful for fulfilling obligations or bequests. Organizations have assets, such as policies, processes, and strategies, that aid in accomplishing their goals. To help with project management, the majority of these organizations have created a variety of templates, contracts, registers, and assessment tools.

Consequently, anything the organization has acquired that you may utilize to manage the project would be considered an organizational process asset.

In this article, we will define, provide some examples, and categorize Organizational Project Assets.

What are Organizational Project Assets?

Organizational Process Assets (OPA) is a material resource that serves as a roadmap for project and operations management within an organization. These assets are the body of information and formal procedures that a company gathers and uses to improve performance, efficiency, and decision-making.

According to the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMI’s PMBOK), they officially defined Organizational Process Assets as “the plans, processes, policies, procedures and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization”. This means that project management is influenced by operational process assets.

For example, a company may have guidelines and standards governing the practices and methods it uses. Another instance is using pre-existing project management templates from earlier projects the company has completed. Additionally, earned value data, timetables, and risk data are further examples of organizational process assets.

You should be aware that each organization has its own OPAs because companies operate in various surroundings.  For instance, a real estate company and a digital marketing agency will each have different OPAs. This is due to each organization having unique policies and procedures.

Here is a quick list of some, but not limited, OPAs:

  • Risk Framework
  • Protocols
  • Project management software
  • Standard operating procedures
  • Proposal evaluation guidelines
  • Project conclusion requirements
  • Job description framework
  • Project filing
  • Project scheduling
  • Networking blueprint
  • Coaching and lessons learned
  • Performance evaluation and metrics
  • Modification of procedures
  • Financial management
  • Historical records of projects

Two Categories of Organizational Project Assets

We can distinguish two categories of Organizational Process Assets (OPA), namely:

  • Processes, Policies, and Procedures
  • Corporate Knowledge Foundation

Let’s look at each OPA category into further detail:

1. Process, Policies, and Procedures

Processes are the connected actions or steps taken to finish a task. Processes can also be thought of as a straightforward overview of workflows. Forms, instructions, process flow, and checklists are a few ways to express processes. They improve productivity, simplify the onboarding process, uphold corporate knowledge, support ongoing development, and foster more adaptability within businesses.

Policies operate at a higher level than processes. Policies are crucial since they aid in an organization's legal compliance. They serve as a framework for organizational decision-making and are primarily concerned with strategy, culture, and decision-making. Additionally, they boost an organization's overall operational efficiency, ensure that internal procedures are consistent, aid in crisis management, and establish responsibility by outlining and upholding professional standards.

A procedure is not always necessary for every activity, which sets it apart from a process. Completing simple activities would only become more difficult if a particular procedure had to be followed. Procedures should be in place for processes that are sensitive, time-consuming, complicated, require documentation, involve major change, or have grave repercussions. As a result, developing a technique ought to be reserved for situations in which it will be useful and clarify a process.

2. Organization Knowledge Base

Organization knowledge bases are repositories of information regarding subjects, goods, and services, as well as other assets like policies and procedures. They fall into a separate category from the preceding three organizational process assets. Because it compiles a multitude of data, perspectives, and experiences that the organization has accumulated over time, this repository is a crucial component of OPAs. To improve decision-making, your team members can also access and exchange knowledge. They can include financial data, historical information, incident and error management, project filing, coaching, and lessons learned.

Conclusion

By reusing what is already available, Organization Process Assets save time. When planning a project, the ideal project manager will take all of this information into account. OPAs give managers additional flexibility because they are modifiable. They change as the company grows and changes throughout time.

Want to build a successful career in Project Management, Agile and Scrum? Or you need free templates, ITTO Games, or Electronic Books?

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