Michael HanfordA fairly common discussion item with Gartner clients is how to reduce the contents of the pipeline of projects to a simple form in order to present it to an executive review group.
The advice that I give most often, is to present this collection of proposed items in some form of comparison.
Fundamentally, we propose and initiate new projects or other types of initiatives for purposes of adding value to our enterprise, and for achieving goals we have set ourselves. Certainly, then, the degree to which a proposed new initiative carries out the items named above must be one part of a comparison, right?
Value has a certain imprecision to it, doesn’t it? What is value? How much value do we get, and, in what form? It feels that we should be also adding this idea of value to our comparison, if we can figure out how to do it.
If we have set goals, we should know if a proposed project or initiative will directly have an impact upon success for that goal. Anyone disagree? It would be nice if proposed projects and goals simply matched up on a 1-for-1 basis. Mostly, however, that is not the case. We need to understand not only that a project or initiative supports a goal, but also which one(s), and how or how much.
OK, we now have some elements which can be inserted into a comparison. On the one hand, we have a project, and on the other hand we have some elements used in a comparison. Things seem to be shaping nicely.
Now we take up the “How” question. I suggest that a very effective mechanism, to carry out a comparison is the score card. If, you suddenly feel all at sea, let me suggest that you type the term “score card” into your web browser, and see what you get. A score card is a metrics device, for which you define measures that fit your needs, provide a scoring range (for example 5 is excellent, and 1 is not very good), and for each item in a comparison, you “score” it for each of the defined metrics. Adding up all of the individual metrics scores provides a total for each item scored, which, can be used to compare all items; and to rank order them. The measures are derived from the elements that we discussed, above. Providing that you are honest in the scoring process, this device provides a – relatively – objective ranking device for the contents of a pipeline of projects.
A score card is a powerful executive communication device. It is compact to present, and readily understandable (high scores at the top, low scores at the bottom). Use a scorecard as input (not the result) to executive review and decision-making about potential new projects and initiatives. This provides executives a baseline to which they can add special knowledge they may have about the business strategy, pending marketplace products and actions, and the future direction of the business.
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