Chapter 25
Selecting the Right Projects
You've probably heard of those free-spirited travelers who open a map, cover their eyes, and point to a random place to decide where they're going on their next trip. Maybe they'll get lucky and have a fabulous time, but their destination could instead be a disaster. If they were hoping for a tropical vacation but end up in the tundra in the midst of winter, bitter disappointment will likely follow.
Just as travelers have many destination choices, an organization can choose from many projects and initiatives. Even though your organization might have the resources to do several projects at once, some projects are mutually exclusive, and you have to definitively pick one direction or another. Furthermore, regardless of your organization's capacity for project work, you always need to know that the projects chosen support the organization's overall mission.
So choosing the right projects is a delicate exercise in creative judgment. Energy is finite and resources are scarce or already overcommitted. Your organization must apply its collective intellect to develop the right ideas and choose the right projects to run. The good news is that you can systematically collect and evaluate your ideas to determine which ones are worth further development.
This chapter covers the best methods for capturing, evaluating, and selecting the right ideas for further development into projects.
Cross-Reference
The information in this section relates to the PMP ...
