Purpose – To examine project management assets and to explore the link between these and the achievement of competitive advantage from the project management process through it being valuable, rare, inimitable, and having organizational support. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey with North American Project Management Institute® members was conducted. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify tangible and intangible elements of project management and the achievement of competitive characteristics of the project management process. Findings – Six factors were extracted that comprised project management assets and three factors that comprised the competitive characteristics of the project management process. Research limitations/implications – This was an exploratory study. It is expected to further develop the instrument, refine the model and constructs, and test it with a larger sample. Practical implications – This study highlights the importance of developing intangible project management assets to achieve competitive advantage from the process. Originality/value – Few papers have used the resource based view lens and applied it to project management. This paper contributes to the literature on the resource based view of the firm and to an improved understanding of project management as a source of competitive advantage.