How can you select and prioritize projects with ease?

Projects are best selected and prioritized by the extent of their alignment to strategic goals (notwithstanding projects required for compliance or other non-negotiable reasons).

Project prioritization criteria need to be carefully selected to align with the portfolio strategy which in turn needs to align with the company’s overarching business strategy. Leadership buy-in and timely input is critical in ensuring that you are starting out with a robust framework that will lead to high-quality decision-making. As a portfolio manager, I also ensure that guidelines for scoring are clearly established to avoid ambiguity, subjectivity and bias in scoring.

??In my experience, defining criteria is a nuanced process requiring attention to detail and strategic insight. ??Balanced Scorecard Utilize this tool to ensure all perspectives—financial, customer, internal, learning—are considered in project evaluation. ??Feedback Loops Establish mechanisms to regularly update and refine criteria based on project outcomes and evolving organizational goals. ??Tool Integration Integrate scoring systems with project management tools for streamlined evaluation and prioritization processes. ??Ensuring criteria are comprehensive and adaptable is key to effective project selection and prioritization.

Define criteria, evaluate projects, rank based on importance, review regularly. Utilize AI and expert input for informed decisions. Celebrate successes, adjust as needed for optimized project portfolio management.

Prioritizing projects is crucial for project portfolio managers aligning multiple projects with an organization's strategic goals and resources. Here are some tips : 1. Establish criteria for project selection based on strategic alignment, feasibility, and value to the organization. 2. Evaluate projects based on the defined criteria, assigning scores accordingly. 3. Rank projects based on their scores to identify the most valuable, feasible, and urgent ones. Additionally, consider assessing the urgency and importance of tasks and projects, aligning them with your goals, and involving your team in the prioritization process for better results. ???? #ProjectManagement #PortfolioManagement #Prioritization

?? In my experience, effectively evaluating projects is pivotal for successful project prioritization and selection. ?? Data-Driven Decisions Quantitative data like project costs, returns, timeframes, and resources are essential for objective choices. ?? Stakeholder Views Diverse perspectives from departments, customers, and partners enrich evaluations. ?? Prioritization Tools Methods like Eisenhower Box and MoSCoW categorize projects by urgency and importance, aiding in goal alignment. ?? A structured approach combining data, stakeholder input, and prioritization tools is essential for effective project evaluation and selection.

Evaluation of projects best can be done through project portfolio- and performance management in which projects on a consistent basis are measured and ranked from inception through operation ( at least 18 months) using a relative small data set thereby ensuring strategic fit, understanding of the relative importance of project in the portfolio, as well as key risks and need of support required to create success, allowing the enterprise to understand how projects overtime could contribute to its bottom line.

A consistent application of a weighted Pugh matrix of the selection criteria, will serve to eliminate bias and promote mathematical ranking of projects, based on merits.

Engage your stakeholders in the evaluation. Having clear, objective scoring for your criteria will make scoring easier and increase buy in.

1. Identify business goals 2. Align projects with strategic goals 3. Assess potential impact 4. Evaluate Feasibility 5. Compare Projects: to evaluate their potential benefits, costs, and risks. 6. Rank or score projects to determine the order of execution. 7. Select projects that align with ORG's strategic goals, are feasible, have potential benefits that outweigh the risks and costs, and address a real need or opportunity. Project prioritization methods like (MESA-Matrix for Evaluation of Strategic Alternatives), financial return, risk, strategic alignment,& time to results. Following these steps and using the project prioritization method that works best for your organization, you can select and prioritize projects with ease.

Don’t over complicate scoring and ranking unnecessarily. Keep where your organization is on the project management maturity scale in mind. Sometimes business acumen is better than adding criteria to score or rank. Keeping it as simple as possible for stakeholders will increase buy in.

Evaluations are never static. Revisit them often. Communicating the results of your data collection can use the methods described, however most stakeholders won't support too much time spent making pretty pictures. Define a working baseline report to meet the needs of your stakeholders and update it for regular meetings. Everything changes, be prepared to update your assessments.

With evaluations complete, you can now embrace the art of ranking. This step reveals the most valuable, feasible, and urgent projects deserving prioritization and funding. Employ diverse methods and tools you can. Leverage qualitative factors such as strategic fit, alignment with organizational culture, and stakeholder preferences to fine-tune your ranking.

To ensure the proper alignment of your projects with the overarching business objectives, it is crucial to thoroughly consider and evaluate the specific goals you are pursuing. Are you primarily focused on financial benefits, seeking to drive disruption and innovation, or aiming to enhance your supply chain operations? By carefully defining and prioritizing these objectives, you can establish a clear and well-defined process for effectively ranking and selecting projects, ensuring that they align with the desired outcomes of any initiative undertaken within your organization. Taking this comprehensive approach will contribute to the success and strategic impact of your project portfolio management efforts

Depending of the maturiy level of your customer/organization. You need to define what is the top 10 projects to manage by internal top leaders (maybe by budget, by your own scale, etc)

Proper portfolio management, requires regular review and reprioritization of projects, based on internal and external factors.

As a portfolio manager you are entrusted to reflect the collective prioritization, rankings and resource allocations. Your listening and attention to details, objectives, concerns and constraints are captured here. Your skill as a portfolio manager is evident when your stakeholders see the results as theirs - not yours.

Project prioritization isn't a one-time voyage; it's an ongoing journey of improvement. Periodically review and adjust your portfolio based on rankings and available resources. Navigate the waters of trade-offs, making informed decisions about which projects to initiate, halt, continue, accelerate, delay, or modify. Communicate your portfolio selections and priorities to all the stakeholders, and team members, providing insight into the rationale and benefits. Stay vigilant, monitoring and controlling portfolio performance to adapt to changing tides and uncertainties. In the dynamic seas of project management, forced inclusions and exclusions are commonplace. These may arise from market demands, associated risks, project synergy, etc.

Regularly, preferably monthly or quarterly, conducting a comprehensive review of the project portfolio is crucial. These reviews reassess projects in light of current business needs, market changes, and emerging opportunities, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and maximum value delivery. Agile project portfolio management strikes a balance between delivering value through incremental development and adapting to evolving business needs. It emphasizes collaboration, transparency, and flexibility, making it an effective method for managing projects in a dynamic business environment.

Don′t have 1000 portfolios to manage, that′s not realistic. 10 porfolios max.And have a full time portoflio manager, no a PM role with 1hour per week to manage the portfolios

Selecting and prioritizing projects becomes easier when you align them with your organization's strategic goals, assess their potential impact, evaluate available resources, and consider their feasibility within your current capacity.

Evaluate the Cost of “Not Doing the Project” to determine the critical projects: Opportunity Cost: Understand what you're potentially missing out on if you don't pursue a particular project. Deferred Costs: If a project is deferred, will it become more expensive to complete in the future? Competitive Disadvantage: Not doing a project might give competitors an edge. Operational Efficiency: Not doing a project may result in continued inefficiencies that incur costs over time. By factoring in the cost of not doing the project, decision-makers get a holistic view of the real value and implications of each project in the portfolio.

All projects will definitely have a Return on Investment ( ROI ) as the base factor for guiding decision. Major component of project like generally funds will need financial team to hedge, invest and ensure funds are available but not parked. Similarly large land portion may need experts to suggest utilization of resources till land is used. All these impacts the project timeline hence more the planning the better is the sub project priority and delivery. Finally, all project started have one golden rule to complete it at the earliest.

In my experience learning from past projects is important factor to consider. For example a global supply chain disruption showed the need for flexible project selection which lead us to keep adaptability in mind when evaluating new projects.

Having the courage to kill politically biased projects is key to proper portfolio management and fiduciary responsibility and professional duties.