for Better Project Decisions
ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
Dancing with the Stars
The rules for scoring ballroom dance performances are universal. The criteria for deciding which projects to invest in? Not so much.
Have you watched the television show Dancing with the Stars? The judges score dance performances by rating each dancer against standards such as posture, timing, and body line. In a similar way, organizations can vet project ideas using standard criteria.
Organizations need to evaluate the value of projects for many reasons. For example, most have more potential work than resources and time. They need a way to give a green light to the best projects and decline the rest. They may also need to construct a portfolio of projects, decide how to handle a sudden diversion of organizational resources, or figure out how to fit in an urgent new initiative among existing projects.
Portfolio management provides a useful framework for this, allowing decision-makers to compare the value of proposed and active projects using standard evaluation criteria that apply to all projects.
How to Score Projects
Evaluation criteria for projects must embody what really drives an organization’s business or mission. Design them so projects that will deliver the most value receive the highest scores. Each organization’s drivers are unique, so evaluation criteria must be customized for the organization, although there are similarities across industries.
Some important criteria can be quantified using the language of financial benefit, for example payback period, expected revenue (stated as NPV), or cost reduction. Other important things are harder to quantify. Instead of trying to reduce them to dollars, score them like dance judges holding up score cards.
Here are some examples of non-financial criteria from real organizations that I know.
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How to cite this article: Oltmann, J. (2025). The Power of Scoring for Better Project Decisions, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VII, July. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pmwj154-Jul2025-Oltmann-The-Power-of-Scoring-advisory.pdf
About the Author
Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
Jeff Oltmann is a seasoned leader with over 30 years of experience advising clients, managing successful technology programs, and developing new products. His specialties include strategy deployment, operational and project excellence, and project portfolio management. As principal consultant at Synergy Professional Services, Jeff advises leaders and teams in diverse sectors including healthcare, research, bioscience, and technology product development.
Jeff is the founder of the Portfolio and Project Leaders Forum. He is also on the graduate faculty of the Division of Management at Oregon Health and Science University and was previously on executive staff at IBM. He teaches portfolio, program, and project management and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®).
Jeff welcomes your questions and ideas. You can contact him at jeff@spspro.com or read previous articles at www.spspro.com/article-library.
