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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

GeneMatrix Project Prioritization

Egemen Erol (200540857), Gauravmeet Gauravmeet (200535602), Jessica Rajan

(200536139), and Nalleli Monzerrat Flores (200522084).

Project Management Program, Georgian College@ILAC

PRJM1004 -204: Strategic Project Portfolio Management

Anthony Araujo, PMP

December 9, 2022
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

GeneMatrix Project Prioritization

GeneMatrix (GMX) developed a strategic plan and accordingly designed a portfolio to

achieve its strategic goals. The selection criteria for the process have been analyzed in detail to

align with its strategy. The total fund provided by GMX management is $10,000,000 and has

been allocated as per project categorizations and strategic goals. The new projects were

identified and analyzed by considering the defined selection criteria (profitability, risk, strategic

alignment, project cost, duration etc.). By using paired comparison method, the top criteria have

been determined. Then, by using weighted score analysis, a decision matrix has been created and

the projects which have a higher than a weighted score of 55 have been included in the new

portfolio.

As the last step of project determination to reach strategic goals, project prioritization

criteria have been determined and analyzed for all the ongoing and new projects selected for the

portfolio. The budget allocation for each project categorization has been determined during

portfolio design and provides a clear prioritization while determining active projects.

As a result of the analysis, the projects to be activated to initiate have been determined by

considering the weighted scores, initial project budget and strategical alignments of project

categorizations.

Resource Allocation

GMX senior leadership has approved the resources budget by project manager to select,

prioritize and initiate the projects in portfolio to achieve strategic goals. The approved funding is
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

$10,000,000 with 10% management reserve where the human capital is approved as 150,000

person hours with 10% management reserve.

The approved budget of $10,000,000 has been allocated to four different project

categories by considering the strategic goals of GMX. The budget allocation has been divided as

given below.

Table 1
Budget allocation as per project categories

Project Categories

Process Learning &

Finance Customer
(Operations) Growth (HR)

Category Allocation 60% 25% 10% 5%

Dollar Allocation $6,000,000 $2,500,000 $1,000,000 $500,000

The budgets allocated for each category is important while determining which projects to

be prioritized by considering the initial budgets of the listed projects in the portfolio.

Project Selection

The new projects have been selected with a detailed analysis of the determined selection

criteria and calculated weighted scores of each project. The lower limit has been determined as

weighted score of 55 and as a result of this calculation five projects have been selected to be

included in the new portfolio. These projects are.

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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

 CLIA Lab - 68

 Licensing Program – 55

 Multi-platform AcuTrack - 55

 PMP Training - 55

 Supervisory Training – 56

The evaluation details of all listed new projects are as below table.

Table 2
GeneMatrix project decision matrix

<---- Enter Total Values from

19 12 11 7 3 52 PairedComparisonWorsheet
File
Relative Weigths % --> 37% 23% 21% 13% 6% 100%
Str. Weighted
NEW Projects Options Profit. Algn. Risk Cost Dur. Score
cGMP Certification 10 70 70 60 40 45 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CLIA Lab 85 70 70 15 60 68 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fit for Health 5 20 80 95 80 41 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Green Packaging 10 40 60 90 60 41 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing Program 48 70 40 60 80 55 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Life Mix 28 50 80 72 60 52 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Multi-platform AcuTrack 40 80 50 60 60 55 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PMP Training 15 80 80 90 40 55 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Salesforce.com 10 30 80 95 80 45 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Six Sigma Training 15 80 80 87 20 54 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Social Media Training 5 15 80 96 80 40 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Supervisory Training 15 80 80 90 60 56 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web Interface 15 40 80 85 75 47 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Note. The projects which have the weighted score of 55 or above have been selected and

highlighted in blue on the above table.

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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

Project Categories & Goals

After selecting and adding the projects in the new portfolio, total 19 numbers of projects

have been listed. The projects have been categorized in Finance, Customer Satisfaction, Business

Process (Operations), and Improving PM Skills in accordance with strategic goals.

Table 3
Categories of projects in the portfolio

Project Name Project Category

AccTrack 100K Customer Satisfaction
AccuTrack 2.5 Customer Satisfaction
All in one Reagent Mix Customer Satisfaction
Ambient Shipping Business Process
Business Ethics Training Improving PM Skills
CLIA Lab Finance
Consolidating Supply Chain Business Process
Data Storage Outsourcing Customer Satisfaction
High Density Array Finance
Licensing Program Finance
Mid Density Array Finance
Multi-Platform AccuTrack Customer Satisfaction
Nanapore Array Finance
PMP Training Improving PM Skills
Project Portfolio Management Business Process
Sample Prep 1-2-3 Customer Satisfaction
Supervisory Training Improving PM Skills
Upgrading Sales System Business Process
Web Based AcuTrack Customer Satisfaction
Project Prioritization

Project prioritization is the key to maximising the value gained from the portfolio. The

process includes both ongoing and new projects and determines which of them are more

important and urgent to achieve strategic goals. While prioritizing the projects two methods have

been followed which are paired comparison tools and a weighted score model. Accordingly, the
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

projects have been activated by considering weighted score, risk, profit, and allocated budget for

each category.

Paired Comparison Tool

The four project categories have been analyzed by using paired comparison tools and

their importance has been evaluated. According to this analysis, the weightings for each category

have been determined which has an affect while calculating the weighted score for each project.

The first table has been created by evaluating each category's relative importance

according to the other category. The relative importance of each category has been assigned

according to the category allocations given in Table 1.

Table 4
Paired comparison of project categories

Option D - Improve PM
A - Finance B - Customer C - Operations
Skills
A - Finance A-3 A-3 A-3

B - Customer B-2 B-3

C - Operations C-1
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

D - Improve PM
Skills

Note. The scores for relative comparison have been assigned out of 3 where 1 is important, 2 is

more important and 3 is much more important.

According to the paired comparison, the total score for each category has been calculated

and ranked. As per the rankings and total scores, the weightings have been determined. The

weightings were given out of 5 and since finance is much more important than the others the

weightings are determined as 5,3,2, and 1 respectively.

Table 5
Total scores, rankings and determined rankings for each project category

Option Total Rank Weightings

A - Finance 9 1 5

B - Customer 5 2 3

C - Operations 1 3 2
D - Improve PM
0 4 1
Skills

Project Prioritization Matrix

The determined weightings for each project category are transferred to the prioritization

matrix where all the ongoing and new projects in the portfolio are listed. In this matrix, the

weighted score model has been used to prioritize the projects. The project information like

duration, cost, and benefit have been already in the matrix. To calculate the weighted scores,
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

each project description has been analyzed carefully and the category scores out of 5 have been

assigned to them by considering their impact on the respective category.

As a result of the score assignments for each project, total weighted scores have been

automatically calculated in the formatted matrix. Then the projects have been sorted from largest

to smallest weighted scores and the project activation process has been started.
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

Table 6
GeneMatrix portfolio prioritization matrix

Imp. Imp.
Projec Cus Cus Bus Bus Risk Risk
In Weighte Financial PM PM
Task Name Duration Start Finish Benefit Est. Cost Threat t Satis. Satis. Pro. Pro. impac prob Resource Names
Portfolio d score weight Skills Skills
profit Score Weight Score Weight t .
Score Weight
Licensing 6 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-02-17 $7,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00 Active 314.5 6 250 5 1 3 2 2 1 1 3 2 Project manager, IT
Program Support, Legal
Web Based 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $9,000,000.00 $3,000,000.00 Backlog 255.75 7 200 5 5 3 3 2 2 1 3.5 2 IT Support, Sales,
AcuTrack Customer Service,
Project manager
AccuTrack 2.5 12 mons Mon 26-10-26 Fri 27-09-24 $6,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00 Active 255.25 3 200 5 5 3 2 2 2 1 3 1 IT Support, Project
manager, Research
& Development
Mid Density 8 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-04-14 $40,000,000.00 $15,000,000.00 Backlog 211.83 4 166.67 5 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 2 Project manager,
Array Sales, Operations,
Research &
Development,
Accounting/
Finance
Sample Prep 1- 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $25,000,000.00 $10,000,000.00 Backlog 193.25 4 150 5 5 3 3 2 2 1 2 2 Operations, Project
2-3 manager, Research
& Development

Multi-Platform 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $5,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00 Backlog 193 5 150 5 5 3 3 2 1 1 2.5 2 IT Support, Project
AccuTrack manager

Data Storage 6 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-02-17 $5,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00 Backlog 192.5 7 150 5 5 3 2 2 1 1 3.5 2 Project manager,
Outsourcing Customer Service,
Sales
AccTrack 100K 18 mons Mon 25-06-09 Fri 26-10-23 $12,000,000.00 $5,000,000.00 Backlog 180.75 6 140 5 5 3 3 2 2 1 3 2 IT Support, Project
manager, Research
& Development

Nanapore Array 18 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 24-01-19 $60,000,000.00 $25,000,000.00 Backlog 178.5 8 140 5 2 3 3 2 2 1 4 2 Project manager,
Research &
Development,
Legal
CLIA Lab 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $26,000,000.00 $12,000,000.00 Backlog 149.83 3 116.67 5 3 3 2 2 3 1 3 1 Management,
Project manager,
Research &
Development,
Operations

All in one 12 mons Mon 24-07-08 Fri 25-06-06 $10,000,000.00 $5,000,000.00 Backlog 130.5 3 100 5 5 3 3 2 1 1 3 1 Project manager,
Reagent Mix Marketing,
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

Imp. Imp.
Projec Cus Cus Bus Bus Risk Risk
In Weighte Financial PM PM
Task Name Duration Start Finish Benefit Est. Cost Threat t Satis. Satis. Pro. Pro. impac prob Resource Names
Portfolio d score weight Skills Skills
profit Score Weight Score Weight t .
Score Weight
Research &
Development, Sales
High Density 18 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 24-01-19 $40,000,000.00 $20,000,000.00 Backlog 128.25 6 100 5 2 3 3 2 1 1 3 2 Management,
Array Operations,Project
manager,Research
& Development
Project Portfolio 6 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-02-17 $0.00 $1,000,000.00 Active -120.25 3 -100 5 2 3 5 2 3 1 3 1 Human Resources,
Mgmt Management,
Project manager
Upgrading Sales 6 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-02-17 $0.00 $300,000.00 Backlog -120.5 3 -100 5 2 3 5 2 2 1 3 1 IT Support,Project
System manager, Sales
Business Ethics 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $0.00 $200,000.00 Active -120.75 2 -100 5 2 3 3 2 5 1 2 1 Human Resources,
Training Management,
Project manager
PMP Training 24 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 24-07-05 $0.00 $200,000.00 Active -120.75 2 -100 5 2 3 3 2 5 1 2 1 Human Resources,
Management,
Project manager
Supervisory 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $0.00 $200,000.00 Backlog -120.75 2 -100 5 2 3 3 2 5 1 2 1 Human Resources,
Training Management,
Project manager
Ambient 12 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-08-04 $0.00 $2,000,000.00 Backlog -121.5 4 -100 5 1 3 5 2 1 1 2 2 Distribution,
Shipping Operations, Project
manager
Consolidating 6 mons Mon 22-09-05 Fri 23-02-17 $0.00 $300,000.00 Backlog -121.5 2 -100 5 1 3 5 2 1 1 2 1 Accounting/
Supply Chain Finance,
Distribution,
Project manager,
Purchasing, Sales

Note. The scores for each category have been assigned out of 5 according to their relevance and benefits which helps to calculate the total weighted score ([Fin. Weight x Pro. Profit) + (Cus. Weight x Cus. Score) +

(Proc. Weight x Proc. Score) + (Skills Weight x Skills Score)]/4).

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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

A total of five projects have been activated by considering their weighted scores, risk

scores, and project costs since the total funding has been divided in each category by their

importance specified in Table 1. Moreover, the human resources for each project have been

also assigned according to the scope of the projects. The activated projects, their categories

and project costs are as below.

Table 7
Prioritized projects in the portfolio

Project Name Project Category Initial Budget

Licensing Program Finance $2,000,000.00

AccuTrack 2.5 Customer Satisfaction $2,000,000.00

Project Portfolio Management Business Process $1,000,000.00

Business Ethics Training Improve PM Skills $200,000.00

PMP Training Improve PM Skills $200,000.00

Summary of Project Prioritization

The project prioritization in the portfolio has been completed by using paired

comparison tool, and a weighted score model by considering the information provided in the

textbook (Kodukula, 2014). While prioritizing the projects first consideration was the total

calculated weighted scores and allocated budgets for each category & goal.

For the financial projects, only the “Licensing Program” project has been prioritized

since the weighted score was the highest and the project budget was within the limits of the

total allocated budget of $6,000,000. After that, the other financial projects’ budgets have also

been analyzed but because of their excessive budget, they couldn’t be prioritized in the new

portfolio.
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

The customer satisfaction projects aim to give value to the customers and increase

their satisfaction with the company’s processes and products. The total allocated budget was

$2,500,000 for this category. The highest weighted scored project with the lowest risk has

been identified as the “AccuTrack 2.5” project with an initial budget of $2,000,000. Even

though some of the remaining projects are valuable according to the strategic plan, they are

more expensive than the remaining budget of $500,000.

Business process-related projects are the ones that enhance the capability,

productivity, and effectiveness of the business processes of GMX. During the portfolio

design, a $1,000,000 budget has been allocated to this category. Even though there are

profitable projects which have been listed in the portfolio with higher benefits and weighted

scores, due to budget allocation, those projects couldn’t be prioritized. The “Project Portfolio

Management” project is the only project which has been activated in the new portfolio which

shows no or minor benefits. However, during the strategic plan development, the SWOT

analysis has shown that poor project management and weak business processes are the

weaknesses of GMX which need to be improved to maintain efficient business processes.

This project will be beneficial in the medium to long term.

Lastly, the projects related to the learning and growth of the employees have been

analyzed. All the projects related to this category has classified as no to minor benefits.

However, improving the skills of employees will be always helpful to strengthen the business

processes, and customer satisfaction and eventually will create financial benefits. So, this

type of project will also be beneficial in the medium to long term. In this concept, “Business

Ethics Training” and “PMP Training” projects have been activated which have relatively

higher weighted scores than other skill-related projects and their budgets of them are

$200,000 for each. Poor project management is one of the identified weaknesses as a result of
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

the SWOT analysis and will enhance the skills of the management staff to manage the

projects better. Ethics is also another main consideration in business life where ethical

behaviours are always appreciated. This will also lead an appreciation from stakeholders and

will help the company to expand in new markets and countries.

Overall, 54% of the funding has been used to initiate the projects determined by

detailed analysis. The remaining funding might be transferred to the next financial year or can

be used for possible future projects to achieve the strategic plan of GMX. The following table

provides a summary of the selected projects, allocated budgets and remaining budgets for

each category in detail.

Table 8
Summary of prioritized projects, their budgets and remaining funding

Project Cat. Budget Project Name Project Remaining

Category Allocation Budget Budget

$2,000,000.0
Finance $6,000,000.00 Licensing Program $4,000,000.00
0

$2,000,000.0
Cus. Satis. $2,500,000.00 AccuTrack 2.5 $500,000.00
0

$1,000,000.0
Bus. Process $1,000,000.00 Prj. Portfolio Mgmt. $0.00
0

Bus. Ethics Training $200,000.00

PM Skills $500,000.00 $100,000.00
PMP Training $200,000.00

$10,000,000.0 $5,400,000.0
Total $4,600,000.00
0 0
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GENEMATRIX PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

References

Araujo, A. (2022). PRJM 1004 – Strategic Project Portfolio Management, Week 10 – Project

Evaluation. Georgian College @ ILAC. https://gc.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-

7659839-dt-content-rid-53461803_1/xid-53461803_1

Kodukula, K. P. S. (2014, June 1). Organizational Project Portfolio Management: A

Practitioner’s Guide (Illustrated). J. Ross Publishing.