Project Selection: A Guide to Project Manager Professionals

Project Selection is a skill that often gets neglected in spite of being one of the most essential qualities required in project leaders and managers. The success of an enterprise directly crutches upon the success of the undertaken projects. And such quality doesn’t simply come with your gut. There are plenty of project selection methods in contemporary practice, that sadly, many enterprises aren’t aware of or simply neglect. But if you are wondering what’s next after PMP®® certification, PMP Certification in San Antonio, to help project leaders and managers like yourself, given below are a list of project selection methods:

Higher Benefit/ Cost Ratio

One effective way, if your topmost priority is cost preservation is to evaluate projects through the Benefit/Cost Ratio process. You just need to calculate the value of investment to the value of the return. The projects with a higher benefit/cost ratio or a lower cost/benefit ratio are the winners.

Scoring Models

This too is a simple method, and more effective than the prior mentioned process for this helps you prioritize other factors than just capital. Here, you’d be required to choose your most important factors, for instance – risk, profitability, the time required, and so on. Now sort these criteria out according to priority and rank each project individually under your chosen factors and add up those numbers. See, which projects outperform and opt for those.

Discounted Cash Flow

For any enterprise to grow, it is of utmost importance to think about the future. And it is given, that the value of capital now won’t remain the same 10 years down the line. This method helps in calculating the present return value in dollars from the prospect of future earnings. For eg. You have project A that’ll immediately bring you some profit, and Project B that looks promising and has the prospect of a greater future return value. The Discounted Cash Flow helps in evaluating solid numbers so that you can depend rather on proof than the possible.

Aligning With Organizational Goals

To work your project’s success parallel with your organizational goals, you can calculate and rank your projects according to them. For instance, your current priority is working on customer service relationships, so you calculate from the projects at hand, which can be the most helpful for you at the moment.

Opportunity Cost

This is the value that is given up by the organization in the selection of projects. Let’s say Project A brings in a profit of $1000, Project B $2000, and Project C $1500. The opportunity cost for project A would be $1000 and $500 for Project C.  When the workload is a lot, the criterion is to keep the opportunity cost as low as possible and select a number of projects accordingly.

For any of us working professionals, our aspirations stick around enterprise success, looking for ways to scale up in the organization. Often the work pressure and the bundling up of the number of potential projects may pose to be overwhelming. Hope this helps you put yourself in the direction and work with utmost efficacy.