I am building a PMO prioritization process to help our leadership team understand what projects should be done when.
I am looking for a set of questions that others may have used in similar endeavours. I will ask the questions of the originator of the request and would then "score" the answers, developing a total score, to assist me in prioritizating.
Has anyone out there developed a list of questions like that? Of course, the financial ones (ROI) and Business Need (timeframes) top the list, but I am looking for other questions that are more specific and might give me a better understanding of priorities.
Your help would be much appreciated. Saving Changes...
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Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Hi Dennis,
good question - how often do you expect the leadership team to undertake the prioritisation? What scale of projects does the PMO handle? One organisation I have worked with have a "Projects & Priorities" meeting every week, which has pros and cons. It is too short a time to get into the zone on any particular priority...especially if the priorities shift regularly, yet, if one is missed then there is no clear prioirty for that week.
I'd like a deeper understanding in order to help more.
The prioritization occurs once a month. We are in the healthcare/hospital field. The PMO is responsible for overseeing all projects in the organization that exceed 40 hours (and all requests for additional projects).
We want to find a list of questions that each requestor of services would have to answer (1= not important/high, 5 = very important/high). Then, using a weight for each question, we could develop a score (weight X answer). Adding the result scores for all questions would give us a total score and give us a preliminary value to prioritize by.
Question 1, for example is "What is the ROI for this request?" (our users know how to calculate that). If we weight that at a 5, and it is a high ROI (5), then the score would be 25.
If we had 10 more questions, give or take, we would be able to prioritize.
Thanks! Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
Dennis,
Prioritization questions should be linked to the organization strategies and these usually are in turns related to the annual goals and objectives cascaded down. The best place to find the questions is to talk to your executive management as they will have a clearer picture of what they are expecting from a prioritization perspective. After all, your prioritization should be aligned with their expectation as well as the organization strategies. Having a standard unrelated questions, although may help you to complete your current task of defining the questions, it won't help you much to achieve your true objective - i.e. prioritization. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I don't know how you could fit this into your prioritisation model, but one very useful question for us has been: what would happen if we don't do this project? Many times the answer is 'nothing', and that really gives you a clear idea about how important it is. Saving Changes...
