Picture This: You are starting a new position as a project manager at a company and are handed about 10 projects to manage. 6 of them are mid-project and 4 are in the pipeline. To compound this you are told that all are important and you don't have enough resources to handle the load (sound familiar?!)
Yesterday, I was discussing prioritization with a client. The situation was quite different than the one above but overall the same principles applied... simply: how do you prioritize.
Essentially prioritization is based on business drivers. In order to start this process you need to take a step back and figure out the core functions and needs of the business. Are you driven by a strategic goal? stakeholder needs? regulations? or financial constraints?
The next step in this process is to come up with a model to measure all of your projects against. A simple scorecard is an effective tool to use in this situation. You define your unique criteria and measure that against the business needs in order to score each project accordingly. You might be surprised at what comes out on top!
This simple but effective method might just save you a headache or two down the road when the 'executive' is putting pressure on you to perform. This will give you the back-up and justification needed to make those hard decisions.
