PROJECT SELECTION PRACTICE AREA

2.1—Project Screening

Once the project opportunity has been adequately identified, it can undergo Project Screening, which is a quick, first look at available information to determine if the opportunity is a viable business investment.

concept of this practice

This practice provides the project manager, executives and senior management team, and the organization with preliminary indications about pursuing the project opportunity, as a basis for continuing with subsequent, more cumbersome project selection activities.

The purpose of this practice is to complete a preliminary examination of the project opportunity in order to provide an indication of whether or not the more time-consuming and costly effort of business case development should be undertaken. Therefore, only fundamental indicators are examined as a matter of process efficiency.

Project Screening is always done during the Profile Phase. However, elements of Project Screening can also be applied, as needed, during later project stages as part of the project business validation process.

conducting project screening

Project opportunities are screened to determine their fit and contribution to the organization’s business objectives. Screening is conducted using relatively simple criteria that can be applied by project managers and business managers alike to determine the next steps, if any.

The screening criteria should provide sufficient indication whether to accept or reject the project opportunity. If the opportunity is accepted, it will proceed to more detailed project selection activities starting with business case development. If it is rejected, it simply is reported to any oversight authority for brief acknowledgement, and then is removed from the organization’s project opportunities list.

The application of the same Project Screening criteria to all project opportunities lets managers in the organization know what is important for a project to be considered for selection. It also ensures that consistent decision-making is applied when all projects are measured by evaluators using the same criteria for each opportunity.

The default Project Screening criteria for this methodology includes an examination of several criteria.

First are the primary screening elements:

q      Strategic Interest

does this project opportunity make a positive contribution to the overall portfolio?

q      Nature of Project Work

does this project opportunity represent the application of a core competency?

q      Resource Capacity

is sufficently skilled staff available for assignment to this project opportunity?

q      Competitive Position

is this project opportunity competitive; or perhaps aligned for competitor selection?

q      Customer Readiness

has the customer validated the need, made funding available, and established the project opportunity as a priority effort?

Additionally, here are some secondary screening elements that can be considered:

q      Break-even time

does this project opportunity provide a business payback in reasonable time?

q      Internal impacts

does this project opportunity contribute to business lines and organizational interests?

q      Market position and market share

does this project opportunity contribute to market position and market share expansion?

q      Business risk

does this project opportunity provide more business benefit than business threat impacts?

q      Cost of ownership

are the costs of owning associated deliverables acceptable on this project opportunity?

Project Screening can be as basic as determining “Yes-No” answers to simple criteria.However, more specific criteria can be developed by the PMO or other project management leadership group to indicate “Yes-No” thresholds or even graduated responses to criteria examination, and provide for a more moderate level of criteria examination. Those criteria should be reviewed and approved by executives and senior managers, who can also identify any other criteria to be applied to the Project Screening process. The organization also needs to determine what criteria evaluation results will allow the project opportunity to go forward.

Screening provides a preliminary examination of the project opportunity and enables the organization to determine if the opportunity warrants further consideration. The premise that a project must be aligned with business strategy is a focus of project screening. In particular, the criteria established to examine strategic fit is applied in this methodology. Opportunities that satisfy the criteria will go forward to further planning and final project selection.

In the event that an organization may want only a single step and consider this activity to be their primary project selection step, it will need to conduct Project Screening as a more rigorous process. That rigor should emphasize the importance of business strategy alignment as the prominent criteria for project selection. As well, this approach also warrants a subsequent go/no-go decision gateway activity to confirm the initial selection decision.