---
title: "Organizational process assets"
subject: "ICT Project Management"
chapter: 7
key: "semester_7/ict_project_management:organizational-process-assets"
source: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_7/ict_project_management/organizational-process-assets
site: BCT Engineering
---

# Organizational process assets

ICT Project Management · Chapter 7: Project Integration Management

- Asked in: year not given
- Video: [Organizational Process Asset](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unBNZzSc_uo) — Project Management
- Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort) on 2026-10-14
- Page: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_7/ict_project_management/organizational-process-assets
- Whole chapter: https://www.bctengineer.com/md/semester_7/ict_project_management/chapter-7

## Question

What do you mean by organizational process assets?

## Short answer

Organizational process assets are the organization’s processes, procedures, templates, and corporate knowledge bases, including historical data and lessons learned. They provide standard practices and improve estimation and planning, and are updated throughout the project.

## Answer

**Organisational process assets (OPAs)** are the plans, processes, policies, procedures and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organisation. They include any artifact, practice or knowledge from any of the organisations involved in the project that can be used to perform or govern the project. PMBOK lists OPAs as inputs to many processes, such as developing the charter and plans.

They also include the organisation's learning and knowledge from earlier projects, and the team may update them during the project.

#### Categories
1. **Processes and procedures**
   - Organisational standard processes: guidelines, templates, quality policies, product life cycles.
   - Procedures for change control, risk control, financial control, issue and defect management.
   - Project closure guidelines.
   - Communication requirements and standard templates (project charter, WBS, risk register).
2. **Corporate knowledge base**
   - Historical information and lessons learned from past projects.
   - Project files, including actual cost, schedule data, performance measures.
   - Process measurement database.
   - Defect and issue management databases.
   - Configuration management knowledge base (baselines, versions).
   - Financial database (labour hours, costs, budgets).

```text
OPA
 |-- Processes & procedures (how)
 |-- Knowledge base (what we learned)
```

#### Importance
- Saves effort by reusing templates and proven methods.
- Improves estimates through historical data.
- Ensures compliance with organisational standards.
- Supports learning and continuous improvement.

#### OPA versus EEF
OPAs are internal and mostly controllable; enterprise environmental factors (government rules, market conditions, culture) are conditions outside the team's control.

**Example:** An IT firm uses its template for a risk register and a database of past projects to estimate testing effort for a new project.

## Check yourself

The answer's key points as multiple-choice questions, with the correct option and why.

1. OPAs are best described as:
   A. Plans, processes, policies, procedures and knowledge bases of the performing organisation
   B. Government rules and market conditions
   C. Only the project's financial budget
   D. Customer complaints
   Answer: A. OPAs are the organisation's own processes and knowledge used to perform or govern projects. (Key point: Definition)

2. Into which two categories are OPAs divided?
   A. Internal and external stakeholders
   B. Processes and procedures, and corporate knowledge base
   C. Strengths and weaknesses
   D. Inputs and outputs
   Answer: B. OPAs include processes/procedures and the corporate knowledge base. (Key point: Categories)

3. How do OPAs differ from EEFs?
   A. OPAs are external and uncontrollable
   B. They are identical
   C. OPAs are internal and mostly controllable, EEFs are outside the team's control
   D. EEFs are templates, OPAs are laws
   Answer: C. EEFs such as government rules and market conditions are external; OPAs are internal. (Key point: OPA vs EEF)

4. Which is part of the corporate knowledge base?
   A. Organisational culture
   B. Government standards
   C. Market conditions
   D. Historical information and lessons learned
   Answer: D. Lessons learned and historical data from past projects are knowledge base items; the others are EEFs. (Key point: Example of knowledge base)

## Related in ICT Project Management

- [Close project process](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fict_project_management%3Aclose-project-process) — ICT Project Management, chapter 7
- [Contract administration process](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fict_project_management%3Acontract-administration) — ICT Project Management, chapter 13
- [Role of EEF and OPA](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fict_project_management%3Aeef-opa-procurement) — ICT Project Management, chapter 13
- [Contract closure process](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fict_project_management%3Acontract-closure-process) — ICT Project Management, chapter 13

## Related in other subjects

- [Organizational structure and line organization](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Forganization_and_management%3Aorg-structure-line) — Organization and Management, chapter 5
- [Depth of well and sinking process](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_5%2Ffoundation_engineering%3Awell-depth-sinking) — Foundation Engineering, chapter 9, asked 3×
- [Case study: critical factors in process control](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_5%2Finstrumentation_ii%3Acs-critical-factors) — Instrumentation II, chapter 10, asked 2×
- [Random process; white noise PSDF and autocorrelation](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_6%2Fcommunication_systems%3Arandom-process-white-noise) — Communication Systems, chapter 9, asked 2×