Prioritization of Digital Transformation Projects

In my article Digital Transformation Need Not be Painful , I discussed the 4-step framework that is used by The Davidic Growth Paradigm as shown in the above diagram.

The last part prior to finalizing a company's roadmap is to prioritize the projects that have been identified in the Advise step. This is done using a proprietary tool designed for the framework where a select group of people coming from the company's top management are tasked with voting for the projects across specific categories. The projects are prioritized so that they can be properly mapped out across the 3-year timeline.?

The prioritization tool is a scoring tool where the projects are subjected to five categories of criteria, as follows:

This first category, Mandatory, is a top-level filter. It describes requirements that have to be met by each project. Respondents rate the project either with a '1', which means 'Yes, it meets the requirement' or '0', 'It doesn't meet the requirement'. A '0' in any of the requirements set would result in a 'Fail' at the bottom 'Mandatory test' row.?

If majority of the scorers give a project a ‘Fail’ score, it is an indication that the project should not be considered at all. On the other hand, if a project gets a ‘Fail’ score from a minority number, the project should not be considered at this time but may be phased at a later stage if the circumstances or conditions change the answer to the mandatory requirements. For a 36-month roadmap, phasing a project at a later stage generally means that it will be considered for execution after the 18-month marker.

The criteria for this category are:

1. The project has high alignment with the organization's Vision and Mission.
2. The project embodies the Davidic Growth mindset.
3. The project has high alignment with the organization's Davidic Growth Targets

The Cost category is based on an estimate of how much the organization perceives the project will cost based on prior experience on a project of this nature or based on solicited ballpark figures from potential vendors. It is also a measure of the project's overall worth to the business given its projected execution time and the potential return on its investment.

The Risk category refers to the level of negative impact a project may have on the organization if it fails, causes internal disruption, or if the project becomes unpopular with its stakeholders.

The Benefits category refers to the short- and long-term benefits like advantages, savings, improvements, and overall contribution to the organization's growth targets. This category is also about the overall estimated positive impact of the project on the organization's business, and the service it provides to its stakeholders.

The last category is Ease of Execution. This reflects those aspects of the project that estimates how easily and/or quickly the project can be initiated, funded, developed, implemented, managed, and sustained. Overall, it is an estimate of how much effort is required from the organization to make the project happen.

The aim of the tool is to help the organization arrive at a decision on how to prioritize the projects resulting from the growth opportunities that they have identified. This is done by rating each project against the five categories stated above.

Each criterion should be given a criteria weight in the range 1 to 3 and should reflect how the organization perceives the level of impact of that specific criterion on its category. Moreover, since Cost and Risk would have negative impact on the prioritization of a project, the weight values should be given as a negative value.?

Each project is then scored based on the following: 5 - High, 4 - Not so High, 3 - Medium, 2 - Not so Low, 1 - Low.

Below is a screenshot of a sample accomplished form showing the scores across eight candidate projects.

The scores are tallied and the projects are ranked based on the scores obtained. The final computation is using a formula that I developed where I factor in a priority coefficient to position the projects across a three-year timeline. A sample roadmap looks like this:

At The Davidic Growth Paradigm, we apply a framework that helps businesses identify their problems but more importantly, guides them into focusing on those problems that when solved will give them the right impact. By doing so, we are able to craft a transformative roadmap that can immediately give them results on their first year of implementation.

If you want to dive into the possibilities of digital transformation for your business but don't know where to start, feel free to chat me up here on LinkedIn or better still schedule a more extensive conversation through an online call. Check out the comments for a link to my calendar and find a schedule that fits your availability.?

*Cover image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay .

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