what are the project priorities?Why this is important ? How to handle this ?

Project Priority:

Project Prioritization is the process to determine which is the existing project is most urgent and important to be worked upon for the fastest completion. This is required majorly in big companies where many projects are going on simultaneously. So, we need to evaluate the project based on the Return of Investment (ROI) or how important the project is for the department, and accordingly we need to rank the Project. For example project related to web security , or billing software might ranked highly as compared to attendance software , etc. Every company can have their own priority of project based on their nature of business.

Project prioritization Process:

Project Prioritization process is the technique to rank the project based on certain values.

Below are the few techniques used for Project Prioritization:

1. Kano – The kano model suggest that , give highest priority to satisfaction of end user. The Feature giving high level satisfaction to end user, should be given highest rank.
2. Payback Period – It’s the time period to recover the cost of investment. The project having shorter payback period can be given higher ranking in prioritization.
3. Scoring Model – here decision makers or Key stakeholders give scores to projects based on their urgency. Higher the score, priority will be higher.
4. MoSCoW method – Must have , Should have, Could have and Won’t have. Project can be prioritized based on above priority matrix. For Example , Features must have implemented in project , Features should have implemented without affecting final output, features could have implemented , and features will be included in future.
5. Analytic hierarchy Process – here projects are compared based on numeric ranking given. Numeric score are given based on the most relevant business requirements.

Why IS Project Prioritization Important?

Project Prioritization ensures correct resources are assigned on most critical projects and same will get completed within agreed timeline. So, resources bandwidth will not get blocked unnecessarily in many projects. This will save cost as well as time, and will increase productivity with higher quality of work.

1. Increased Efficiency – Correct resources are working on most crucial project increases the efficiency of resources
2. Improved organisation – Company saves the time and cost with improved efficiency resulting in organisation growth.
3. Increased Success rate – Project success rate increases and project completion will be within timeline with no compromization in quality.

How to prioritize the Project

We need to prioritize the projects keeping business goal and requirements in mind. Below are some steps:

1. Prepare list of projects- Prepare all important and existing project. Consult with high level, mid level management like unit head, project head , dept head etc.
2. Organize by Priority Level – Prioritize the obvious important project first and rank them higher.
3. Decide the Prioritization crieteria – Based on different techniques, determine the prioritization criteria considering the organisation’s goal and needs.
4. Rank the projects – Applying the prioritization techniques determine the ranking and prioritize the projects.

Prioritizing projects will be ongoing job of Project Manager.  It is required to hit the success ration of project completion.