Project Prioritisation: From long list to short list
Adriana Moreno-Pelayo
To support this process, we have produced an example project prioritisation tool. This is a simple excel tool that can be tailored by the towns, for instance identifying their own criteria for assessment based on the town’s specific objectives.
Our first entry blog on project prioritisation explained at a high level what prioritisation is about and set out the overall process, from understanding the need for investment, setting a vision and objectives, and identifying a shortlist of projects that support these objectives. In this entry, we focus on the key part of the process: how to choose which projects should go into an investment plan out of a long list of potential schemes.
The shortlisting process is not an easy task and is influenced by judgement. Even if we follow a clear and structured method, ultimately the choice of projects is a political decision. However structure does help - it enables us to assess projects on a consistent basis and provide robust advice to politicians. A useful way of undertaking this process is through a three-stage process, whereby the town or investment promoter filters the initial long list with pass or fail criteria and then moves on to score projects based on agreed objectives and vision. In the case of the Towns Fund, pass or fail criteria should focus on identifying the projects in scope – e.g. is the project a capital investment? is it located within the town boundary? is it related to the Towns Fund investment themes? is it compatible with clean growth and could it potentially help with Covid-19 recovery?. Once projects in scope have been identified, a more detailed assessment based on scores, usually 1-5, should be undertaken to identify the prioritised list. Finally, the investment promoter (e.g. the town) should check that all investments shortlisted form a coherent investment programme that can support the vision for the area.
Before the scoring or assessment can happen, a crucial step (and sometimes controversial!) is agreeing the objectives that the projects should be assessed against. These should be specific to the local context and should support the vision for investment, while also accounting for practical considerations (e.g. do we have the capabilities to deliver the project?). A useful guide for identifying objectives is thinking about the five cases of a standard business case (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management) – does the project meet our strategic objectives (these will be different for each town), is it value for money from an economic perspective, is it affordable, is it commercially viable and can we deliver it? Overall, prioritisation criteria should be discussed in detail to make sure they reflect well the strategic objectives.
It is worth noting that to support a robust assessment of projects, the evidence of need should be clear and comprehensive. This way we are able to understand how projects can address existing challenges and support our objectives. Once we have our list of projects in scope and our objectives agreed, we can finally score our projects and rank them based on the assessment to inform the final prioritised list, clearly identifying the rationale for scoring.
