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Assignment 2

Name

Institution

Course

Instructor

Date of Submission
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Introduction

Snapshot Transportation Company Inc. primarily operates via the completion of projects.

It has a sophisticated system for managing projects. The company's upper echelons have lately

noticed, however, that it is having trouble figuring out which efforts would be the most

beneficial. The business uses a technique called SnapMethod for its projects. SnapMethod is a

modified version of the Waterfall approach to project management. There are currently four

steps in the SnapMethod process: launching, organizing, carrying out, and wrapping up. The

company's upper management agreed with the PMO director's recommendation to add a fifth

project phase termed "selecting" to address the company's problems with project selection.

Project ideas that show promise will be selected at this stage so that they may go on to the next,

"initiating," phase.

Purpose of Selecting Phase Process

Senior management (and sometimes project sponsors) are primarily responsible for

making initiative selections. Most organizations have their own set of selection criteria, which

might be anything from purely subjective considerations to more nuanced quantitative or

qualitative standards. In any case, there has to be a good reason to choose this particular project.

From a money-management standpoint, picking a project is a two-step process (Kerzner, 2017).

The company will first determine whether or not the proposed action is feasible via the selecting

phase procedure. The next thing to do is do a cost-benefit analysis to see whether the business

should go further. The purpose of the feasibility study is to verify that the project can be

completed at an acceptable cost, is technically feasible, is safe, is marketable, and can be easily

implemented. In addition, according to (Ebby, 2021) all the steps a company takes to weigh the

pros and drawbacks of potential ventures in order to choose a new project are included in the
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project selection process. High-level management often decides on and then outsources a new

project team.

Inputs to the Selecting Process

The steps involved in selecting a project may vary from company to business, but in

general they include scoping out potential initiatives, contrasting those initiatives, assessing the

outcomes, and ultimately settling on one. Factors like these inform which projects are prioritized:

Creating a list of potential future projects with your company's decision-makers is the first step

in selecting a project. Evaluate a number of opportunities in light of your chosen method for

choosing tasks. In this case, the costs and benefits of the first set of projects are compared using a

cost benefit analysis template. Consider the relative merits of each project by assigning weights

to several criteria and then comparing the aggregate scores. In this case, the more "expensive"

score was represented by a negative number. and a greater "benefit" is represented by the former.

If the score is close to zero, the cost-benefit ratio is almost neutral; Choose the task that your

group can do successfully. In many cases, this is the highest-rated assignment. Budget numbers

and total cost are two examples of factors that your model could not include for (Ebby, 2021).

Tools and Techniques used in Selecting Project Process

The significance of a meticulous evaluation, involvement, and endorsement from diverse

essential stakeholders within and outside the organization in the project selection process has

been established. In this regard, the present discourse delves into three categories of project

selection and the numerous methodologies that fall under each category, as posited by Kerzner

(2017). The project selection process entails two distinct categories, namely qualitative

evaluations and quantitative evaluations.

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Qualitative Evaluations

Sacred Cow: The aforementioned initiatives are personal undertakings advocated by the upper

echelon of a particular institution. It is possible that these initiatives may lack economic

feasibility, fail to generate a return on investment, inadequately reinforce the company, or exhibit

a lack of alignment with the business's strategic objectives. In contrast, initiatives that are

considered sacred cows are typically initiated due to a mandate from a person in a position of

authority.

Competitive necessity: As the adage goes in the realm of commerce, one must either engage in

competition or face failure. Organizations may encounter a scenario wherein their industry has

undergone disruption due to the innovative technology or business strategy of a competitor. In

such scenarios, it is imperative for all executives within the industry to promptly discontinue

ongoing projects and redirect their companies towards a trajectory that enables them to

effectively contend in the novel market circumstances. Priority will be given to projects that

align with the new impetus.

The weighted scoring method: The Weighted Scoring Method utilizes statistical techniques;

however, it is frequently perceived as a qualitative approach owing to its subjective

characteristics. In decision-making processes, numerical values are employed to establish a

hierarchy among alternatives, whereas percentages are utilized to indicate the relative importance

of specific criteria.
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Project Important Score Weighted Scor Weighted

selection percentage score. score
process (B) e (C)
(A) project Project
score 1 score 2
A*B A*C

Best 45% 95 42.75 80 36

Transportation
company
Create at least 35% 82 28.7 75 26.25
one new route
every year.

Increase the 45% 84 37.8 80 36

number of
seats in the
vehicles

Awareness 80% 67 53.6 65 52

drives to
educate
people about
transportation
facilities

Make a profit 60% 50 30 55 33

of at least
18%
Improve the 50% 65 32.5 60 30
current
transportation
system

Special pass 45% 60 27 65 29.25

system for
daily
commuters

Total 252.35 206.5

weighted
Score
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Quantitative Evaluation

Present value: PV = FV/ (1 + r) ^n

PV= Present Value

FV = Future Value

r= interest rate

n= number of time periods

Net Present Value (NPV), Future Value (FV), Payback Period, and Benefit-Cost Ratio

(BCR) are key financial metrics used to evaluate the profitability and feasibility of projects. NPV

considers the time value of money by calculating the difference between the present value of

cash inflows and outflows (Vallero, 2019). FV estimates the value of an investment at a future

date based on assumed growth rates. Payback Period measures the time taken to recover the

initial investment. BCR compares project benefits to costs, with a ratio greater than 1 indicating

a lucrative project (Vallero, 2019). By analyzing these metrics, organizations can make informed

decisions about project selection, focusing on those with positive NPV, high FV, shorter payback

periods, and favorable BCRs, maximizing profitability and return on investment.

Outputs of Selecting Phase Process

The outputs of the selecting phase process in the SnapMethod project methodology include:

1. Selected Project Ideas: The process results in a list of project ideas that have been evaluated,

prioritized, and approved for further development and execution. These selected project ideas

align with the organization's strategic objectives and demonstrate feasibility and potential

benefits (Kerzner, 2017).

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2. Feasibility Assessment Reports: Reports summarizing the feasibility analysis of each project

idea, including strategic alignment, technical feasibility, financial viability, operational

feasibility, and risk factors. These reports provide valuable insights for decision-making and

further project planning (Kerzner, 2017).

3. Prioritization Scores and Rankings: The process generates prioritization scores and rankings

for the project ideas based on predefined criteria. This information helps in identifying the most

valuable and strategically aligned projects that should receive higher priority.

4. Project Selection Decisions: The process culminates in the final decision on which projects

will enter the initiating phase and proceed with detailed planning and execution. The output

includes a clear determination of the selected projects and a justification for their selection based

on the evaluation and analysis conducted during the selecting phase (Kerzner, 2017).
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References

Ebby, K. (2021, August 16). Everything You Need to Know about Project Selection.

Smartsheet. https://www.smartsheet.com/content/project-selection?amp

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and

controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Vallero, D. A. (2019, January). Evaluating the Feasibility of Public Projects. In Waste (pp. 741-

755). Academic Press.