Prioritization Fun

I just did a fun (as in take a risk, hope you don't get fired!) little exercise for our management staff. 

To start, I put a few "project" names on some 3x5 cards and put them out for review with a comment like "I think we'll all agree these are the top projects that IT needs to be working on."

(Don't worry if you can't read the cards -- that's not the point.  If you do read the cards, don't read too much into any specific product or company names)

That generated the appropriate "Yeah, that's about right" response.  So far, so good.  There was also one "but what about..." question.  Perfect!

So, I mentioned there were a few other somewhat important things going on and put a few more cards down:

Once again, there was general agreement and some "ah, I'd forgotten about that" sort of comments.

But wait, there's more.  Now I pulled a deck of 3x5 cards from my pocket and put quite a few more down:
 
Now there was less commentary.  No disagreement, just rather silent acknowledgment.

I never got to the rest of the deck, but here's the way it would have looked if I'd managed to get everything on the table.

I did get to wrap up with one more little bit of fun.  I managed to mention that I hadn't had time to put everything on 3x5 cards, so I dropped a piece of paper with a long list of items on it on top of the cards.

It was fun.  So...how do you deal with an overwhelming pile of projects?

Comments

[Kirk Longhofer]

Ohhhhhh....

I am SO doing this next Tuesday at our senior staff meeting.

Thanks!

kdl

[Tony Dye]

I've "played this deck of cards" several times now and I'm enjoying it more each time!

[Derek Iannelli-Smith]

Tony, I thought you might be interested in this: http://www.davidco.com/store/product.php?productid=16173&cat=0&page=1
I recently loaded it and it is smoothing out my project work a little bit at a time...

Derek
Charleston, SC

[Tony Dye]

I'm a big fan of "GTD" and have used my own variation of the Outlook methods for many years now. For managing my own personal tasks, it's great. It's a bit more difficult to use for managing group items, although the principles still apply. We have a shared task folder that was the source of my list of projects. Thanks Derek!

[James Higginbotham]

I found that most projects aren't as important as first thought if you:

1. Ask them to write down the project definition
2. Ask for some initial milestones as they see them

If it is important enough, they will do it. Otherwise, it goes on the backburner and often is never addressed. While this may not be the most appropriate way to handle some situations, it will often tell you just how important they think the project really is. If it is important, then the follow-on steps needed to see it through will often happen (along with a budget).

The details are outlined in my last series on project management:

Define the Project: http://www.agileministry.com/2006/04/30/define-your-project/
Setting the Pace: http://www.agileministry.com/2006/05/03/project-milestones-setting-the-pace/

[Jim Walton]

How do you deal with it? I would say bring someone in who can manage projects, further prioritize and define them, prioritize them again and begin to chip away at them. In an ideal world, you'll be completing tasks quicker than new ones come in, that's a challenge in itself.

I think you are way ahead of the game by actually having things documented as much as you do. It seems like we generally tackle projects based on which ever wheel is squeaking the loudest, not considering everything else that is needing to be done.

[Chris Marsden]

Your picture feels like my life right now. Only instead of a stack of 3x5 cards, I am surrounded by stacks of paper and other junk.

[Tony Dye]

How do I deal with it? Well...having a list and going through the prioritization process is part of it. (Of course, prioritizing is another project in itself!) I remember a CIO magazine article a few years back that addressed how IT managers have to deal with constant change and pressure like this and they did a survey. Most IT managers admitted they didn't *know* the right answers, but just made the best choices they could from the time and information available. We have to all be willing to get it wrong sometimes.

[Tony Dye]

James, I'm with you on asking people to define what they want. I tend to save a lot of "requests" on an ideas-list, and re-consider them later. It's amazing how time changes things -- I've gone back to people, months after they gave me a "you've got to do this now" type thing (that I didn't do) and asked them about it and they don't even remember the request. Selective (or deferred) memory is a good things sometimes!