Published by JMB Project Management Co. LLC
Project prioritization should account for the people and operational capacity available to carry out the work. A ranked list of attractive initiatives does not establish that they can all proceed together.
Begin with an accurate view of existing commitments. Include projects already underway, mandatory work, operational demands and the proposed initiatives being considered. Leadership needs to understand what new work would displace or delay.
Agree the criteria before scoring
Define what matters to the organization. Criteria might include strategic contribution, business need, time sensitivity, delivery risk and resource demand.
Explain what each criterion means and what evidence supports the assessment. Avoid allowing the most confident sponsor to set the basis for comparison during the meeting.
Separate requirements that must be met from preferences that can be traded. A critical operational dependency may need to precede another project even if its direct commercial benefit appears smaller.
Examine shared constraints
Identify specialist teams, suppliers or systems needed by several initiatives. Compare the required timing with their actual availability.
In an illustrative portfolio, three projects may all need the same integration team during the same month. Approving all three without resolving that dependency creates commitments the team cannot yet support.
Discuss options such as different sequencing, reduced scope, additional capacity or a delayed start. Record the consequence of each option for existing commitments as well as the new project.
Test the decisions against the operating environment
Consider the change being introduced to the same business teams. Managers may need to release employees for training, testing or process design across several projects while maintaining services.
Include that demand in the capacity discussion. A project can have a funded technical team while lacking the business participation required for acceptance.
Maintain a reviewable decision record
Record why an initiative was approved, deferred or declined. Identify the assumptions that could change the decision and the next review point.
The UK Government Project Delivery Functional Standard includes portfolio management within its wider project delivery framework. It is an international reference, while your prioritization criteria should reflect your own organization’s objectives and obligations.
Review the portfolio when circumstances change materially. A lost resource, emerging dependency or revised business need can affect more than one initiative.
Make a credible commitment
The useful output is a sequence of projects with accountable owners and supportable assumptions. Keep deferred initiatives visible, but do not present them as active commitments without the capacity to deliver them.
JMB supports project portfolio reviews and governance, helping leadership connect prioritization with the resources and decisions required.