Introductory Notes

Organizational process assets enable consistent process performance across the organization and provide a basis for cumulative, long-term benefits to the organization. (See the definition of "organizational process assets" in the glossary.)

The organization's process asset library is a collection of items maintained by the organization for use by the people and projects of the organization. This collection of items includes descriptions of processes and process elements, descriptions of life-cycle models, process tailoring guidelines, process-related documentation, and data. The organization's process asset library supports organizational learning and process improvement by allowing the sharing of best practices and lessons learned across the organization.

The organization's set of standard processes is tailored by projects to create their defined processes. The other organizational process assets are used to support tailoring as well as the implementation of the defined processes.

A standard process is composed of other processes or process elements. A process element is the fundamental (e.g., atomic) unit of process definition and describes the activities and tasks to consistently perform work. Process architecture provides rules for connecting the process elements of a standard process. The organization's set of standard processes may include multiple process architectures.

(See the definitions of "standard process," "process architecture," and "process element" in the glossary.)

The organizational process assets may be organized in many ways, depending on the implementation of the Organizational Process Definition process area. Examples include the following:

• Descriptions of life-cycle models may be documented as part of the organization's set of standard processes, or they may be documented separately.

• The organization's set of standard processes may be stored in the organization's process asset library, or they may be stored separately.

• A single repository may contain both the measurements and the process-related documentation, or they may be stored separately.