The Project Book

CHAPTER 54 VERIFY PRIORITIES

I remember my favourite project prioritisation session vividly. I was head of projects for a large government agency and asked each member of the executive team to provide a one-page summary and 30-second speech for each initiative they wanted to undertake the following financial year. Then they took turns to stand up and present these to their peers.

I gave them a sheet that enabled them to grade each key element of the project being presented and at the end (before we left the room) I collated the scores and produced a list of the 82 projects. Their goal was then to agree on the top 10, top 25 and top 50. We had proved the previous year that we had enough permanent people to complete 55 projects, but the record of meeting stakeholder expectations was poor, so I set the number at 50.

The whole process took three and a half hours. There were laughs, verbal jousting, howls of derision, structured discussion and some well-conducted arguments. We confidently published the top 50 and set about delivering them the following year.

Halfway through the year, we re-evaluated what had been completed and talked about what was left to do. Each sponsor took it in turns to present their progress and why it was important that we continue to invest (or plan to invest) in each of their initiatives. Numbers were re-verified and time frames clarified. We killed some projects in order to add some new ones and each sponsor gave the team confidence — or not — in the value ...