How Do I Analyze Combined Project Priorities and Resources?

The purpose of the exercise is to review these results (and their assumptions) from multiple dimensions, thereby gleaning insights or themes and otherwise framing the information in such as way that will be valuable to decision-makers.It is not expected that Decision Lens will provide the final results of the prioritization and optimization without any modifications or constraints.

1. Review Value Prioritization -  To determine whether the results are valid, ask: Are there any alternatives that seem out of priority (too high or too low)?

  • If so, is it because of missing criteria, inconsistent weights or incorrect ratings?

  • If missing criteria, it is difficult to address using sensitivity. Consider fix funding projects that are most affected.

  • If the weights, use sensitivity to analyze.

  • If the ratings, determine whether the data is inaccurate or more data is required. b. To glean insights from the results, ask: How will this information help us? i. Consider: Is the 1-n list all we need? ii. To further analyze, look at this from the eyes of the key decision-makers and run scenarios. Use Tradeoff analysis to dive down into particular alternatives. Use Bubble Chart to analyze alternatives across selected criteria. Look for correlations, high-level conclusions, etc.

2. Review Value ROI and Optimize with no constraints on specific alternatives a. Categorize alternatives into bands of similar costs. Conduct the following analysis (2b-d) within each band. b. Look at the V-ROI chart by “Score descending.” This is reflective of the Value prioritization you reviewed in Sensitivity.

  • Discuss alternatives that stand out as high-value/low-cost, usually on the left. These are your most effective alternatives.

  • Discuss alternatives that stand out as low value, high-cost (usually on the far right). These are your least effective alternatives.

  • Discuss alternatives that are high-value/high-cost and low-value/low-cost. These projects fall in the middle. You may choose to review these projects in the bubble plot.

  • With the score descending view, review the list on the far right (lowest value). Note projects that you believe should receive no or partial funding based on a “fund-by-priority” scenario.

3. Now sort the V-ROI chart by V-ROI descending.

  • Review the list of alternatives on the far right (lowest value per cost). Note projects that you believe should receive no or partial funding based on a “Value-ROI” scenario

  • Identify alternatives that should receive full funding even though they have a low V-ROI score.

4.  Optimize i. Create a scenario that is unconstrained and run the optimization. Compare the optimization results to the short list you wrote down. Any differences? Why? Look for observations and insights from these results? Do you notice any trends? e. Compare across Bands

  • Take your list of projects within each band and analyze the tradeoffs of funding certain alternatives over others.

  • Run optimization for the entire portfolio and review whether the results are consistent with your intuition. Why or why not?

5. Layer in Constraints and run scenario.   Create a new scenario with constraints on specific alternatives

  • Take your short list of alternatives across funding bands, and layer in force funds, hard minimum funding amounts, or soft minimum funding amounts.

  • Layer in dependencies as necessary and re-run optimization and review results.

  • Run budgetary scenarios with constraints in place, run scenarios on funding with selected budget increases or decrements. Consider using the Pareto Table. Review results.

6. Summarize key themes or insights a. Based on the exercise, summarize key themes and insights.

  • Consider the “so what?” from the perspective of the key decision makers.

  • Look at both qualitative and quantitative information and document the rationale for constraints that were imposed in the model.

  • Use the summarized information to complement the prioritization results.