Abstract:
The invention is a method and system for scoring and prioritizing projects. The scoring system uses a combination of factors to calculate and present a score and scorecard for a project. The score and scorecard “grade” the project based on its expected and/or actual impact on or for an organization. This invention includes an electronic channel for consulting or aiding customers with the use of the invention and related consulting.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/577,522 named “Method and System for Identifying, Assessing, and Prioritizing Initiatives” filed Jun. 7, 2004 by the present inventors. 
     
    
     FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH  
       [0002]     Not applicable  
       SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM  
       [0003]     Not applicable  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     1. Field of Invention  
         [0005]     This invention relates to project management, more specifically to determining the value, prioritization, and performance of projects.  
         [0006]     2. Prior Art  
         [0007]     Common practice in project valuation, prioritization, and performance management is ad hoc and varies by project and organization. Many organizations use “intuition” as the primary criteria while others go through laborious number crunching efforts. Unfortunately, spreadsheets, the typical tool of choice for number crunching, are recreated for each project and difficult to leverage collaboratively across a team. The result is inconsistent, impeded decision-making that leads organizations to inefficient and ineffective project selection and execution. The typical large business leaves millions of dollars in lost return on investment on the table. These investment losses create a chain reaction by preventing or hindering future investments in more worthwhile projects. Given the combined investments of capital, scarce personnel, and other resources, a better solution is required.  
         [0008]     Relevant Prior Art: 
        U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,004—Method and apparatus for facilitating management of information technology investment     U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,767—Method and system of confidence scoring     U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,149—Information technology project assessment method, system, and program product     U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,928—Method and apparatus for idea development and evaluation     U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,305—System and method for evaluating real estate     U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,992—Method and system for rating patents and other intangible assets        
 
       OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES  
       [0015]     In summary, this invention channels scarce resources on the best projects, helps organizations achieve better results from the projects they pursue, and significantly reduces the resources and capital wasted on weaker projects. The purposes of this invention are to provide a method and system for rapidly and easily focusing on the projects that best fit an organization&#39;s needs and objectives. In addition, it enables organizations to: 
        flexibly rate projects based on their scope and other factors while structuring and reviewing the ratings in a consistent and easily interpreted fashion     reduce the complexities, miscalculations, hidden assumptions, and redundant work required to use spreadsheets to estimate a project&#39;s financial impact     easily comparing the pros and cons of pursuing projects regardless of their type, organizational geography, or organizational unit impact     more effectively balancing financial impact, which can be difficult to assess for some projects, and qualitative aspects, which deserve more focused and structured assessment     reduce the time and costs associated with receiving consulting or similar advice        
 
         [0021]     In summary, the invention has the following advantages over prior art: 
        Single platform supporting multiple customers     Accessed and run over the internet (or any similar network)     Configurable for each customer while enabling shared or community templates     Zero installation: customers simply access the system without acquiring, installing, or maintaining their own hardware and software     Balance between qualitative, financial, and other metric-based factors     Focused on upfront identification, assessment, prioritization and selection of projects     Easy to answer and configure questions scored and organized into an intuitive scorecard     Ability to view multiple projects at a time and select one or more for more detailed analysis     Simple, easy to use variable and fixed financial calculations     No reliance on spreadsheets; enables single view across an organization that aids collaboration     Scores and related calculations update as data in the invention is updated     An electronic channel for consulting with and aiding customers        
 
       SUMMARY  
       [0034]     This invention relates to project management, more specifically to determining the value, prioritization, and performance of projects. It is comprised of stored or accessed data, configurable ratings, weighted relative scoring, configurable financial calculators, and related reporting and presentation. 
     
    
     DRAWINGS  
     Figures  
       [0035]     Drawing figures included:  
         [0036]      FIG. 1  shows the major functional components of the invention and their interactions (AKA Block Architecture)  
         [0037]      FIG. 2  is a workflow, from a customer or super administrator&#39;s perspective, for administering the rating model (AKA Administer Rating Model)  
         [0038]      FIG. 3  shows the algorithm for calculating scores from a project&#39;s ratings (AKA Rating to Score Calculation Algorithm)  
         [0039]      FIG. 4  shows the algorithm for calculating a project&#39;s financial estimates (AKA Financial Calculation Algorithm) 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
     FIG.  1   
       [0040]      FIG. 1  shows major components of the invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the invention is protected by a Secured Login  110  that prevents unauthorized access to the invention. Once a user logs into the invention, the invention only allows the user to access information specific to the user&#39;s customer account. The invention displays Portfolio View(s)/Reporting  120  showing all or a subset of the projects for that user&#39;s customer account. Portfolio View(s)/Reporting  120  can be used to analyze a set of projects in a comparative format (e.g., side-by-side, top-to-bottom, graphs) with rating scores, financials, and other critical decision-making information (displayed similarly as defined for Project Scorecard  134  below).  
         [0041]     From this point, the user can select one or more projects to access in more detail via Project Details  130 . Project Details  130  includes a project Profile  131  with basic project information (e.g., name, category, description, summary scores); Project Ratings  132  with question-answer style ratings; Project Metrics and Financials  133  with key metrics, variable and fixed financial estimates; and Project Scorecard  134  with scores and other select information. In addition, the user can add comments or explanatory text.  
         [0042]     Project Ratings  132  enables the user to evaluate the project by responding to a series of questions from a list of predefined answers.  
         [0043]     Project Metrics and Financials  133  enables the user to estimate and update the project&#39;s metrics and financials. Depending on the customer&#39;s configuration settings, metrics, financials, and other data may be entered directly into the system or accessed from an external source. A variable financial is defined as a mathematical combination of 2 or more variables and/or dollar factors resulting in financial amount. A fixed financial is any other type of financial amount. All financial amounts can be estimated by year for a number of years with cumulative and running totals. Other critical financial calculations, such as ROI, IRR, NPV, and Payback, is also displayed.  
         [0044]     Project Scorecard  134  reports critical project information from  131 ,  132 , and  133  in a single view for quick reference and decision support. Rating scores are shown as a combination of numbers (e.g., percentages, x out of y points) and graphics (e.g., horizontal bar graph indicating the project&#39;s score as compared with the maximum possible score) as configured for the customer account.  
         [0045]     The invention allows for some users to take on additional access rights, such as those required to administer settings configurable for each customer. If the user has been granted customer-specific administration rights, AKA Customer Administrator, the user can also configure customer-specific settings via Customer Configuration(s)  140 . Within Customer Configuration(s)  140 , the Customer Administrator can define the customer and user accounts via Configure Users  141 , configure basic settings via Configure Profile and Other Settings  142 , configure scoring models via Configure Scoring Settings  143 , and configure metric and other calculations via Configure Calculation Settings  144 .  
         [0046]     The invention calculates ratings, scores, and other calculations via the Scoring and Calculation Engines  150 . The Scoring Engine  151  is further defined in  FIG. 3  and its related description. The Calculation Engine  152  is further defined in  FIG. 4  and its related description.  
         [0047]     If the user has been granted cross-customer administration rights, AKA Super Administrator, the user can also configure customer accounts and related settings via Super Configuration(s)  160 . Super Configuration(s)  160  enables Super Administrators to setup and define customer accounts via Configure Customer Accounts  161  and select a customer account to access via Select Customer Account(s)  162 . In addition, similarly to the actions performed by a Customer Administrator for the customer&#39;s account, Super Administrators can define scoring models, ratings, and financial and other metric calculations that can be used by any customer via Configure Shared Models  163 .  
         [0048]     The invention enables users to receive consulting or similar advice via an electronic consulting channel  170 . Any user can request consulting or similar assistance  171  from the provider (or its agents). The invention provides an easily accessible link or menu navigation to request consulting throughout its components. The consulting provider can review consulting requests and manage its work queue  172 . The invention enables the availability of the electronic consulting channel to be configured on a customer basis via Configure Customer Accounts  161 . The combination of the electronic consulting channel and other invention components enables a consulting provider to provide consulting assistance to a customer with specific references and/or access to customer information, accelerating the consulting process and helping the customer arrive at a specific solution more quickly and confidently.  
       FIG.  2   
       [0049]     The invention enables a scoring model to be assembled, applied to projects, and transformed into scores presented in a variety of ways.  FIG. 2  shows how a user might configure a scoring model for a given customer account.  
         [0050]     An Administrator (Customer Administrator or Super Administrator) can review existing rating/scoring model(s)  210  to determine whether a new rating model needs to be created or an existing rating model needs to modified, used, or copied.  
         [0051]     Each scoring model is made up of score items or factors that together make up a project&#39;s total score. An Administrator can define these items via Define score items  220  (each defined via Define score item and weighting  221 ). As necessary, a score item can contain other score items to provide a hierarchical structure (via Define parent-child relationships  222 ). In addition, a score item can point to data, calculations, or ratings. Ratings are defined in question-answer like format via Define ratings  223 . A scoring model for a given customer account can contain any number of scoring items.  
         [0052]     An Administrator can assign 1 or more score items to a shared scoring model  230 . An example use of a rating template would be to define a rating model for a particular type of project (e.g., IT, retail store site selection). A rating template can be assigned to specific project attributes, such as category, such that a user can select the category early in the process of defining a project and receive the benefits of predefined rating groups/financials applicable to that category of project. In addition, a Super Administrator can designate templates as accessible to any customer via Assign to Template  260 . A given customer could have access to any number of templates.  
         [0053]     An Administrator can define a shared model&#39;s weighting and presentation style  240 . The weightings can be applied at any level in the model (e.g., score items, child score items, rating answer values).  
         [0054]     An Administrator can copy an existing scoring model via Copy existing scoring model for new scoring model  250 . Using this approach, an Administrator can quickly setup a new scoring model without having to create scoring items, parent-child relationships, and ratings individually.  
       FIG.  3   
       [0055]      FIG. 3  illustrates how a project&#39;s factors are transformed into scores for use and display throughout the invention. Two primary events trigger the need for the Scoring Engine to rescore all or part of the project scores for projects using a given scoring model: 
        (1) If any project data that is used by the scoring model to calculate project scores changes then the Scoring Engine will receive a message or indication that it needs to score some project data  310 . Upon receiving this message, the Scoring Engine will traverse the scoring model to find the highest point in the model (parent-child relationships) where the project data change will impact project scores  320 . From this point, the scoring engine will continue at  350 .     (2) If all or part of the scoring model changes then the Scoring model will receive a message or indication that it needs to score some project data  330 . Upon receiving this message, the Scoring Engine will find the highest point in the scoring model where the scoring model change will impact project scores  340 .          
         [0058]     Using the high impact point score item (from either  320  or  340 ), the Scoring Engine begins scoring score items using a recursive function that traverses down the tree then back up to the high impact point score item, passing score items to the scorer ( 350 ). 
        (1) The scorer begins by collecting project data that is linked to the passed score item in preparation for scoring the projects in the dataset ( 360 ). It also determines whether the passed score item requires a data calculation before being scored. If calculation(s) are required, then the scorer sends a message to the Calculation Engine ( 365 ).     (2) For each passed score item, the scorer will determine whether to apply a range or cycle-based scoring approach. If the scorer selects the range-based approach, it will determine the project data ranges that make up each n-tile for the score item ( 370 ). Otherwise, it will use the cycle-based approach for scoring ( 390 ). In the cycle-based approach, the scorer cycles through unique project data and assigns the appropriate score points based on the number of projects in the dataset that have project data that is higher and lower than the current unique project data being processed. This will continue until all projects in the dataset have been scored for the passed score item.     (3) If using the range-based approach, the scorer will update projects&#39; score points based on where the project&#39;s data falls into each n-tile range ( 390 ).        
 
       FIG.  4   
       [0062]      FIG. 4  shows the essential operation of the Calculation Engine. 
        (1) The Calculation Engine is triggered by a message that a calculation is needed ( 410 ).     (2) Next, the Calculation Engine recursively traverses the required calculation (if hierarchical) passing operands and operator or function to the calculator ( 420 ). This process will continue until the entire calculation model has been traversed and processed.     (3) For each passed calculation, the calculator gathers linked project data for the given dataset ( 430 ).     (4) To complete the calculation, the calculator applies the operator or function to the appropriate project data as defined by the project data to operand link ( 440 ). Following the calculation, the calculator returns to the recursive caller ( 420 ).