Prioritizing Projects at D. D. Williamson

The following assignment will take a look at the Prioritizing of Projects by D. D. Williamson organization. A brief critique on the process used to prioritize their different Projects. A suggestion will be made of at least one method to improve the processes used. A scenario will be explored where their current prioritization process will not work. A five year projection will be attempted to speculate whether or not D. D. Williamson will still be using the same processes will justification for a yes or no determination.

Critique the prioritization process used by D. D. Williamson.
The use of multiple stages in the processes was a bit too much. Key management support was mentioned as being required. However, after establishing the needed support and including the hiring of a continuous improvement manager, there were still many more steps that were deemed necessary for establishing their priority projects.

Such companies as TechRepublic have narrowed the process down to five steps (Rollins, 2008). D. D. Williamson had to first diagnose what projects where not making processes and then give their projects ratings before they could eliminate the dead weight and begin making headway on those projects that they had approved. The standardization of their project prioritization seemed to be a change as they went processes instead of an established procedure. Such things as reflecting on learned results from prior process trials, should have led them to be able to establish procedures for the company to go by. Suggest at least one (1) recommendation to improve the prioritizing process.

One suggestion to improve to the prioritizing process is to start at the very beginning before taking the project. If the project interferes with the companies mission, or there are already a number of projects that are in work for the company it becomes a matter of quality over quantity. Can the company successfully handle another project on their work load and still produce a quality product for their customers. Once that question is answered, prioritization is simplified among the projects that are already in work.

By starting at the simplest portion of the project, whether or not it is in the best interest of the company to take on that particular project, it makes the prioritizing of the other projects much more concise. Use of the scoring method is highly recommended by many resources. One source suggests that “a strong governance model is a key differentiator between companies” (The Project Management Portmanteau, 2013). The model as described in the text is the result of multiple attempts before reaching its final draft. By following what institutions such as MIT have done they would better succeed in their prioritizing matrix. Create a scenario where the implemented process at D. D. Williamson would not work

One scenario in which their process would be unrealistic is an IT process. The needs and procedures for a computer program are very different once the program is being designed and written. Often a computer program will vary greatly from one moment to another until the full program is designed and written for the system it is designed for. Also, a program designed for a personal computer requires different parameters than one written for a multimillion dollar fighter jet. This difference can cause the priorities in how the program is written to be very different. Something else that is included in that change is the time requirements for producing the computer program. For instance, in order for the company to remain head of their industry they may need to produce a new computer system that is marketable to the general public, at the same time there may not be a great demand for a new fighter plane at that time. The priority becomes the home computer system and not the fighter plane. Despite of complex one is over the other. Project five (5) years ahead and speculate whether or not D. D. Williamson will be using the same process. Justify your answer.

As with all future speculation there is room for error. Within a five year time period it is very likely that the if they D. D. Williamson company was still using process improvement as they stated, the will have revisited their process and changed it as needed. The focus of process improvement is to see what works and see what does not. It does not stop there however, the process improvement methodology requires that those using it periodically go back over what they are doing to improve their processes and judge whether they are still working for the company in that period. If it is not the company finds what is working and changes what is not. This continuous improvement makes the processes in the company continuously evolve to meet the needs of the company as they appear. The products that the company specializes in, processing equipment and environmental scrubber are hardware and therefore subject to improvement themselves. This makes them open for processes improvement in the future.

In conclusion, the prioritizing of projects done by D. D. Williamson should be considered a work in process. Their stumbling though two then settling on a third iteration of project prioritization processes has caused them to lose time on projects that was already behind schedule for them. The use of continuous improvement methods, though a wise choice, will result in the company continuously evaluating and improving the process that they had chosen. This means that the process they chose will evolve into a completely new iteration within a period of time.

Works Cited

Kloppenborg, T. (2012). Human Resource Management . Mason: Cengage Learning. Project Management Institute. (2011, March). How to Prioritize Projects. Credential Passport . Rollins, J. (2008, October 15). How to prioritize your organization’s projects. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from TechRepublic U.S.: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/cio-in-action/how-to-prioritize-your-organizations-projects/#. The Project Management Portmanteau. (2013, March 25). Project Scoring & Prioritization for Maximum Results. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from The Project Management Portmanteau: http://www.projectmanagementportmanteau.com/2013/03/project-scoring-prioritiz