Rank Projects, don't try to do it all

January 22, 2009 by
Filed under: General, Strategy 

Today I read a blog post on CrunchGear about how Apple’s success is at least partly due to their streamlined product line.  On a post at MacRumors, they discussed Tim Cook’s view of the Apple Philosophy.  This quote stood out to me:

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

For years I have been touting this is an Apple strength, but this philosophy does not just have to apply to product development.  It can be engrained into an organization in other ways.  

I have seen organization try to tackle many initiatives simultaneously and they have either failed at most of them or they have done a poor job during implementation.  

No matter what an organization is trying to do, it has to realize that resources are finite and that most people will not be able to adequately address multiple initiatives simultaneously.

Given those constraints, what can be done?  Well, borrowing from Agile development and the Toyota Production System, the organization should list all the projects it wants to undertake and develop a set of objective criteria to rank these projects (Time / Resources Needed, Ease of Implementation, Cost, etc.).  Once the projects are ranked, the top projects are selected,”pulled,” and the lower ranked projects are put on the back burner.  

Not only does ranking help identify the truly important projects, but it helps people stay focused.  Another advantage is that no one works on projects which are low priority and may get displaced by a hot new initiative.  By continuously reviewing, adding, and modifying your project backlog, your organization will do a better job at implementation and the benefits will be realized sooner.

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