Every year, many major and minor project ideas are surfaced, discussed and either initiated or discarded. How are these decisions made? Is this a formal process in your organization that is connected to your corporate planning process, or not?

Project plans are operational plans that should be in support of corporate objectives and strategic directions. In order to select and manage projects properly, there should be a prioritization process. How does your organization handle that very tough issue? You need a project selection process that identifies, defines and determines the feasibility of each project and then passes the project through a selection screen that considers its support of corporate objectives, priority and benefits plus the availability of resources and funds.

Bill Bates is the Principal of P3M Governance Inc. He has more than thirty-one years experience in applying project management processes across various types of projects in industry and government environments. In addition to authoring and designing several project management methodologies and software systems, he is a retired officer of the United States Marine Corps. He holds his B.S. from the University of Maryland and M.A. in the Technology of Management from the American University.