How to prioritize and select projects

TransparentChoice Software Tutorial

From this presentation you will learn how to use TransparentChoice software to prioritize projects. See sample results below…

The first thing you need to do is to create a project. In order to do that you need to be logged in. If you don’t have an account yet – you can create it here.

Project prioritization process

1. Create a project.

2. Add projects.

3. Define criteria.

4. Evaluate.

5. Display results.

Click here to create a project…

Now it is time to add projects as “Alternatives”. “Alternatives” are things that will be evaluated in your decision project e.g. vendors, technologies, projects or candidates. So in this project Alternative = Project There are 3 ways to add alternatives (projects): • Manual one-by-one. • Collect online – publish a form and

invite other people to submit proposals.

• Import – from text or a spreadsheet file.

Project prioritization process

1. Create a project.

2. Add projects.

3. Define criteria.

4. Evaluate.

5. Display results.

Use this button to add projects manually…

This option allows you to publish a web-form with

which people in your organization can nominate

projects. It will be explained in another tutorial.

In this tutorial we will show you how to import

projects…

You may use “Quick” import and simply paste the list of projects

(each in a new line).

or import vendors from a spreadsheet file.

This is a spreadsheet that we will use.

Requirements for the spreadsheet

• The file must be saved in xlsx or xls format.

• Data for the import must be in the first sheet.

• The first row must contain headers (names of imported attributes).

• Headers must be unique.

• One of the columns must be populated with alternatives’ names. Other columns are optional.

• Names of alternatives must be unique.

The first column contains the names of projects. “Name” is the

only column (attribute) that is required for the import.

Name (required) and Description (optional) are default attributes for each alternative (project) you're importing. You can add other attributes (a fancy name for any data you want to attach to a alternative you're evaluating) such as cost, risk, etc.

Click here and upload your file…

“Cost” is not a default attribute so if you want

to import it, you need to create a new attribute…

Leave the default settings. “Attributes” will be explained

in another tutorial…

Click here to preview the imported data…

Click “Import” to confirm.

Projects are added as “Alternatives”.

If you want to edit a project…

Defining criteria is about: • Building the hierarchy of criteria. • Setting the measurement option

for each criterion. There are 3 measurement options: • Pairwise comparisons (default). • Custom scale – define your own

scale for a criterion. • Attribute – use imported data for

the evaluation.

Project prioritization process

1. Create a project.

2. Add projects.

3. Define criteria.

4. Evaluate.

5. Display results.

Go to “Criteria” tab…

Prioritize projects

Profitability Risk

Technology risk

Organizational risk

Strategy alignment

Stakeholders perspective

This is the criteria hierarchy that we will use

for the evaluation…

Bottom-level criteria You will use these criteria to directly "measure" the alternatives (projects). You will typically use a scale or attributes to do this.

Upper-level criteria These criteria are made up of sub-criteria. You will typically use pairwise comparison to work out the relative importance of the sub-criteria

Prioritize projects

Profitability Risk

Technology risk

Organizational risk

Strategy alignment

Stakeholders perspective

Please notice the difference between upper and bottom-

level criteria.

Bottom-level criteria You will use these criteria to directly "measure" the alternatives (projects). You will typically use a scale or attributes to do this.

Upper-level criteria These criteria are made up of sub-criteria. You will typically use pairwise comparison to work out the relative importance of the sub-criteria

Click here to add criteria…

By default, criteria have “Pair-wise comparisons” assigned. We will leave

this for upper-level criteria (sub-criteria will be prioritized with pair-

wise comparisons).

Click “edit” to change the measurement

option…

This is where you can change it…

We switch to “scale” for all bottom-level criteria (projects will be scored

with scales).

The goal of evaluation step is to: - establish the relative importance

of criteria, - score projects in the context of

bottom-level criteria. You do this by filling auto-generated (based on criteria settings) survey. If you evaluate with your team you need to: - collect surveys from all members, - build a consensus.

Project prioritization process

1. Create a project.

2. Add projects.

3. Define criteria.

4. Evaluate.

5. Display results.

Software generates a survey for each evaluator (member

of your team).

The list of surveys will show up here. If you're working on your own, you don't need to

add any more evaluators.

Here you define the type of the judgments in survey.

Here you build consensus when making group decisions. It will be explained in another

tutorial.

Click here to access the survey…

This is an exemplary pair-wise comparison that

evaluator needs to make...

and project evaluation with a scale.

You can display the results for the whole group and for each member. There are 4 types of results: - Ranking - Criteria weights - Sensitivity analysis - Score / cost chart

Project prioritization process

1. Create a project.

2. Add projects.

3. Define criteria.

4. Evaluate.

5. Display results.

1. Choose data source (in this project there is only one evaluator).

2. Click on “Show results”. 3. Choose the results to

display.

• This is the ranking of projects. • You can display the chart data

in a table. • Names and priorities of criteria

are below the chart.

• This is the score / cost chart. • The bigger circle, the greater

value for money. • You need to import “cost” as

an “attribute” to display this chart.

• You can use it to select portfolio…

Uncheck projects from the bottom (lowest value / cost) until you reach your budget.

Criteria priorities. On this chart we display only the bottom-level criteria. You can change it.

• Sensitivity analysis – see how ranking changes when criteria priorities change.

Next steps

• See our other tutorials

• Get the free trial of TransparentChoice software

• Schedule a live demo of TransparentChoice software

• Request our support for your pilot project