5 Effective Ways Project Managers Can Leverage Organizational Process Assets
By: Alvin Villanueva, PMP; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Grace Payumo, PMP
You’re staring at your project dashboard, and the deadlines are creeping closer. The pressure is accurate, and your to-do list grows by the minute. You want everything to go smoothly but feel overwhelmed by all the details.
What if there was a way to relieve some of that pressure, streamline your process, and keep your projects on track?
You can think of Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) as your secret weapon—templates, guidelines, lessons learned, and more to your project management processes. They give you the structure and resources to stay organized, make faster decisions, and keep everything moving without the stress.
This article explores five practical ways to use OPAs to improve
Are you ready to take control and optimize your projects like a pro? Let’s dive in and unlock the power of OPAs!
The Role of Organizational Process Assets in Project Management
Imagine having a personal library of all the tools, templates, standardized guidelines, and insights you need to make every project you manage run like clockwork. That’s precisely what Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) provide.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines OPAs as the collection of plans, processes, policies, and knowledge unique to your organization in its
These assets might include everything from tried-and-true templates and detailed guidelines to lessons learned from previous projects. Using OPAs, you’re not reinventing the wheel every time you start a new project—you’re building on past experiences, optimizing processes, and setting your team up for success.
When you tap into OPAs, you’re not just working hard—you’re working smarter, leveraging your organization’s collective knowledge to streamline your projects.
Why Understanding Organizational Process Assets is Crucial for Project Managers
Understanding OPAs is key for anyone looking to streamline
Whether you’re a project manager, team leader, or a stakeholder involved in decision-making, knowing OPAs ensures your projects run smoothly, comply with organizational standards, and stay within budget (Sánchez-Segura et al., 2017).
With the right OPAs, you can create efficient workflows, improve communication, and avoid common pitfalls that slow down projects.
Here’s why you need to understand OPAs:
- They help standardize processes, making your projects more efficient and consistent.
- OPAs provide valuable insights into past projects, which can help prevent repeating the same mistakes.
- They ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, and organizational policies, reducing the risk of errors and delays.
- OPAs enable faster onboarding for new team members, helping them get up to speed quickly.
- They enhance communication and coordination across teams by providing shared frameworks and resources.
The method I’ll share with you is designed to make OPAs a powerful tool for your
Understanding the Types of Organizational Process Assets
Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) come in various forms, and each type plays a crucial role in guiding your project to success (Sánchez-Segura et al., 2017). Here’s a breakdown of the key types of OPAs:
Processes, Procedures, and Policies
The processes and procedures set forth by an organization are a core component of OPAs, ensuring consistency across projects (PMI, 2021). According to Turner and Keegan (2017), these frameworks also help project teams remain aligned with organizational strategies, thus promoting operational efficiency.
It is best used to define workflows, ensure everyone follows the same procedures, and maintain compliance with organizational or regulatory standards.
Organizational Knowledge Bases
Organizational knowledge bases include lessons learned from previous projects and templates that help streamline project planning and execution (Jafari & Sadeghi, 2019). Accessing these insights not only saves time but also helps avoid mistakes that have been encountered in past projects (PMI, 2021).
It is best used for accessing historical data, lessons learned, and templates that can improve the planning and execution of current projects.
Templates
Templates are pre-built documents and formats that help standardize the creation of project plans, schedules, budgets, and more. Templates save time and reduce errors by providing a starting point for documentation.
It is best used to streamline documentation processes, save time creating project materials, and reduce inconsistency in project outputs.
Project Management Software
This includes any software tools or systems the organization uses to manage projects, such as scheduling, budgeting, risk management, and collaboration platforms (PMI, 2021).
It is best used for centralizing all project information, tracking progress, and improving Communication among team members.
Project Documents
These are the documents created for a project, such as project plans, schedules, budgets, and resource allocation charts. They guide the project through its lifecycle.
It is best used to keep everyone on track and ensure transparency between the project team and stakeholders.
Each type of OPA supports project managers in specific ways, ensuring smoother operations and enhancing efficiency throughout a project’s lifecycle. Understanding and leveraging these OPAs will make your team more aligned, organized, and prepared for success.
EEF vs OPA: Key Differences
While both Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) and Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) are essential to the success of your projects, it’s important to understand their similarities and differences.
They each serve unique functions, and understanding their distinctions will help you leverage them effectively.
What They Have in Common:
- Influence Project Success : EEFs and OPAs shape projects’ planning and execution, as well as their controlled decision-making, resource allocation, and project execution (PMI, 2021).
- Support Consistency and Efficiency : They help ensure that projects follow consistent standards and guidelines, minimizing errors and enhancing the likelihood of successful project outcomes.
- Relate to Organizational Operations : EEFs and OPAs are rooted in the organization’s structure, policies, and practices, ensuring that projects align with organizational strategies.
Why They Are Different:
Nature and Source:
While OPAs are internal resources that organizations control, Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) are external variables such as market conditions or regulations that influence the project environment (Schwalbe, 2019; PMI, 2021). As PMI (2021) emphasizes, understanding these factors helps project managers navigate both internal and external challenges efficiently.
Scope of Influence:
- EEFs: They influence the overall environment and context of the project. For example, a new regulation or a shift in the market could drastically alter your project’s course. You cannot control EEFs, but you must adapt to them.
- OPAs: They directly affect how the project is executed. OPAs include processes and templates, resources you can access, and lessons you can learn from past projects. OPAs are tools you actively control and apply.
In essence, EEFs create the environment in which your project operates, while OPAs provide the resources, corporate knowledge base, and guidance needed to execute the project within that environment.
By understanding both, you can navigate the complexities of
How to leverage Organizational Process Assets (OPA): A Step-by-Step Guide
Managing Organizational Process Assets (OPA) effectively can transform how you approach
To help you maximize OPAs, here’s a straightforward, step-by-step process for leveraging them to their full potential.
1. Identify Available OPAs
According to Kerzner (2022), the first step in leveraging OPAs effectively is to identify what is already available within the organization, including templates, lessons learned, and past reports, which can provide valuable insights.
Learn what your organization has stored in its knowledge bases or within the
2. Assess Your Needs
Research by Project Management Institute (PMI) (2021) highlights the importance of tailoring OPAs to a project’s specific needs. By carefully assessing what is relevant to the current project, project managers can avoid overcomplicating workflows with unnecessary assets.
Understanding the needs will help you select the right resources.
3. Customize and Adapt
Not all OPAs will perfectly match your project’s needs. Customize and adapt the templates, policies, and processes to better suit your project’s objectives. If something is lacking, don’t be afraid to make adjustments or create new assets. This is about tailoring the resources to work for you.
4. Incorporate OPAs into Your Project Plan
Once your OPAs are tailored, start incorporating them into your project plan. Ensure your team has access to the templates, checklists, and guidelines to guide them throughout the project. This integration ensures smoother execution and helps everyone stay on track.
5. Monitor and Update OPAs
As your project progresses, continuously monitor the effectiveness of your OPAs. If things are going well, great! However, if you encounter challenges, you may need to refine the resources or look for new ways to apply them. Regularly updating and revisiting your OPAs is key to keeping your project on course.
By following these steps, you can maximize the value of your organizational process assets. Now, let’s dive into how you can apply this approach in real-world scenarios!
Step 1: Identify Available OPAs
The first step to leveraging Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) is identifying available assets. OPAs can include documents, templates, policies, standard operating procedures, and lessons learned from previous projects.
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the full range of OPAs your organization has collected. These could be a shared knowledge base or a central repository maintained by your
How to execute this step:
- Scan your organization’s knowledge base: Locate the repository where OPAs are stored (this could be a
project management software tool, intranet, or document-sharing platform). - Make a list of available assets: Write down or create a catalog of templates, checklists, risk management strategies, past project reports, or any other valuable resources.
- Communicate with colleagues or the PMO: Contact your team members or the PMO to inquire about any recent OPAs that might benefit your project.
Why this is important:
Understanding the tools, control procedures, and documents available will help you avoid reinventing the wheel. Instead of starting from scratch, you can work with what your organization has already established, saving time and effort.
Step 2: Assess Relevance to Your Current Project
Once you’ve identified available OPAs, the next step is to assess their relevance to your current project. Not all OPAs will apply; selecting the right ones is critical to ensuring they add value.
Evaluate each asset based on your project’s goals, size, complexity, and unique challenges.
How to execute this step:
- Review your project’s scope: Examine your objectives and deliverables closely. What do you need to achieve, and what obstacles might you face?
- Match OPAs to project requirements: Cross-reference available OPAs with your project’s needs. For example, if your project requires detailed risk management, look for OPAs that include risk assessment templates and strategies.
- Prioritize the most relevant assets: Narrow the list to include only the OPAs that will significantly contribute to your project’s success.
Why this is important:
By focusing on the most relevant OPAs, you avoid unnecessary complexity, instead of using everything available, you zero in on the resources that will help your project run more smoothly.
Step 3: Tailor Templates and Procedures to Fit
Many OPAs come with templates, procedures, and guidelines designed to be customized. Not every project will have the exact requirements, so tailoring these assets to fit your
Customization ensures the processes are aligned with your project’s unique characteristics and objectives.
How to execute this step:
- Review existing templates and procedures. Look for templates covering project schedules, budgets, and communication plans. Then, evaluate them to see if they align with your project’s needs.
- Customize templates: Adjust the templates to match your project’s scope, schedule, and resources. For example, if you’re working on a software development project, you may need to tweak a risk management template to fit the technology-specific risks.
- Update procedures as needed: If existing procedures don’t precisely match your project’s workflow, modify them to ensure they cover every step necessary for smooth execution.
Why this is important:
Tailoring templates and procedures help ensure that the OPA assets are relevant to and specific to your project’s context. Customization makes the templates more practical and better suited to your team’s needs, reducing ambiguity and confusion.
Step 4: Integrate OPAs into Your Project Plan
The next step is to integrate the relevant OPAs into your project plan. These assets should inform your project’s processes, workflows, and decision-making. The goal is to seamlessly integrate the OPAs into your project activities and ensure they provide ongoing support throughout the project’s lifecycle.
How to execute this step:
- Incorporate OPAs into project workflows: Add the customized templates, procedures, and policies to your
project management software or documentation and ensure they are accessible to all team members. - Align OPAs with project milestones: Place templates and guidelines where they can be most helpful, such as during planning, execution, and closing.
- Ensure alignment with stakeholder expectations: Use OPAs to define how project communication, reporting, and approvals will take place, ensuring consistency and transparency with stakeholders.
Why this is important:
Integrating OPAs into your project plan builds a framework for efficient and structured
Step 5: Review and Learn from OPAs After Project Completion
After the project concludes, the final step is to evaluate how well the OPAs worked for performing organizations. Evaluate the most helpful assets and identify gaps that could be filled with new or improved OPAs.
This reflection helps your organization develop better OPAs for future projects and strengthens continuous improvement.
How to execute this step:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of OPAs: Review the project’s performance and assess how well the OPAs contributed to project success. Were there areas where certain assets didn’t apply or could have been improved?
- Document lessons learned: As part of project closure, record insights and feedback regarding the OPAs you used. Based on your experience, consider updating existing assets with improvements.
- Share your feedback: Communicate your findings with your team and the PMO. Encourage others to contribute their own experiences to help improve the organizational knowledge base.
Why this is important:
By reviewing and learning from the OPAs you used, you help your organization grow. Each project is a chance to refine the process and ensure that future projects benefit from better resources, ultimately leading to greater efficiency and better outcomes.
Key Considerations for Effectively Managing Organizational Process Assets (OPA)
While following the steps outlined above will help you use OPAs effectively, a few additional key considerations can significantly affect the success of your project.
Flexibility is key. To ensure continued value, OPAs must be adaptable and flexible. A study by Jafari & Sadeghi (2019) indicates that the dynamic nature of
Engage your team: One of the most effective ways to maximize the value of OPAs is to involve your project team. Encourage them to contribute their ideas, feedback, and lessons learned to improve your organization’s assets. Collaborative engagement helps ensure that OPAs are helpful and reflect the team’s needs.
Monitor and update regularly: Even after completing your project, make it a habit to monitor the status reports and effectiveness of your OPAs regularly. Regularly updating OPAs based on lessons learned and organizational process changes will ensure they remain relevant and practical.
These considerations will help you stay ahead, providing long-term value and improved project outcomes. Continuously refining and adapting OPAs will set your team and organization up for success in future projects.
Taking Your Organizational Process Assets Management to the Next Level
Once you’ve understood the basics of managing Organizational Process Assets (OPAs), it’s time to consider how you can elevate your approach and make an even more significant impact on your projects and team.
Leverage technology for more innovative asset management: Advanced
Create a culture of continuous improvement: One of the most impactful ways to improve your OPA management is to foster a learning and continuous improvement culture. Encourage your team to assess what’s working and what’s not regularly. Use feedback loops to adjust processes, templates, and knowledge bases to ensure they evolve with your team’s needs.
Train and empower your team to use OPAs effectively: In addition to improving the OPAs themselves, invest in training your team on how to make the most of them. The more your team is engaged with OPAs, the more effective they will be in utilizing them to improve project outcomes. Host workshops, offer hands-on learning opportunities, and make resources easily accessible to ensure your team is confident in using OPAs to their fullest potential.
Adopting these strategies allows you to take your OPA management beyond the basics and make it a cornerstone of your project’s success.
Alternative Methods for Managing Organizational Process Assets
While managing Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) is highly effective in guiding projects, other approaches are worth considering, depending on the project’s needs and the required flexibility level.
Adopting Agile methodologies: Agile methodologies provide a more adaptable framework for environments where rapid change and flexibility are crucial. Instead of heavy reliance on detailed processes and procedures, Agile emphasizes collaboration and iterative progress (Highsmith, 2010). By focusing on continuous feedback and short cycles, Agile can streamline the use of OPAs, offering a lighter yet equally effective approach to
Lean Management: Lean management prioritizes efficiency and resource optimization by reducing waste and improving process flow (Womack & Jones, 2003). By applying Lean principles, you can rethink how OPAs are utilized, concentrating on only the most critical and value-adding assets. This eliminates unnecessary complexity and ensures that processes remain lean and agile (Liker, 2004). As noted by Dyer (2018), Lean methods reduce non-value-adding activities, ensuring the project team can work more streamlined and efficiently, using OPAs only when genuinely beneficial.
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS): Instead of relying solely on formal OPAs, Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) can capture and share procedures, policies, insights, lessons learned, historical project data, and expert knowledge. These systems foster a more collaborative and dynamic knowledge-sharing environment (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). A KMS ensures that every team member can access critical information while navigating the project lifecycle, enhancing decision-making and supporting a culture of continuous improvement (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).
These alternatives offer various ways to manage project knowledge and processes that may better suit different projects or organizational cultures. Whether you prefer the flexibility of Agile, the efficiency of Lean, or the collaborative nature of KMS, exploring these options can help you tailor your approach to best suit your team’s goals.
Final Thoughts on Managing Organizational Process Assets
Managing Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) is a powerful way to ensure consistency, streamline operations, and enhance project success.
By establishing clear guidelines, documented processes, and templates, OPAs offer a structured approach to handling everything from project planning to execution, ensuring you’re equipped to handle both the expected and unexpected. Whether in
Efficiently managing OPAs can have a transformative effect on project success. As Morris & Pinto (2020) conclude, projects that effectively use OPAs tend to have better-defined project scopes and more structured execution.
This tutorial gives you insights into maximizing your organizational process assets. By understanding how to manage and implement them effectively, you’ll be ready to take your projects to new heights. Keep learning and refining your approach—it’s the best way to stay ahead in
Key Takeaways
- Organizational Process Assets (OPAs) are the resources, project files, templates, processes, and knowledge that guide project execution and governance. They include everything from policies and procedures to lessons learned and project documentation.
- Types of OPAs include processes, policies, project documentation, procedures, and knowledge bases. Each type plays a unique role in managing and executing projects successfully.
- Understanding OPAs is crucial for project success. They help you stay organized, ensure consistency, and provide a foundation for continuous improvement.
- EEF vs. OPA: While both impact
project management , Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) create the constraints and boundaries for a project. OPAs capture the knowledge and best practices to help you navigate those boundaries more effectively.Following a straightforward step-by-step process for creating, managing, and implementing OPAs can improve your project’s performance, efficiency, and outcomes, ensuring a smoother path toward success.
References
Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Harvard Business Press.
Dyer, J. H. (2018). The Lean Advantage: Achieving Success through Continuous Improvement. Harvard Business Review Press.
Highsmith, J. (2010). Agile
Liker, J. K. (2004). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill.
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2021). A guide to the
Rigby, D. K., Sutherland, J., & Takeuchi, H. (2016). Embracing Agile. Harvard Business Review, 94(5), 40–50.
Sanchez-Segura, M. I., et al. (2017). Organizational Process Assets and Their Use in
Womack, J. P., & Jones, D. T. (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. Free Press.
