What Is Project Differentiation?

Voters must watch out for the use of the 1 and 0 (best point and worst point on the rating scale). If one of the first projects is a good one for a certain criterion, that alternative may get the highest point on the scale. Later in the voting process, along comes an alternative that is far and above better than the others for that criterion and you can’t score it any higher. Once you go 1, you can’t go higher. Pick the strongest project to run through each criterion first or include it in the definition so that the 1 is calibrated. Conversely, many don’t use the 0 enough. In voting sessions where project owners are stakeholders, people are hesitant to give a project a 0 score because, in effect, that is rejecting the project or saying it is not valuable (against that specific criterion). This will take time to overcome and really depends on the group make up and culture of the organization. Alternatives can be arbitrarily inflated because of the fear of giving out zeros.