Introduction
HORIZON PPM is the smart solution for project and portfolio management and Project Priorities is one of the components that supports this. Working smarter, not harder is achieved by managing our priorities. What's urgent? What's important? What's complex? What requires a lot of effort?
HORIZON PPM provides an extension of the Eisenhower Method with four dimensional views of project elements that answer these questions.
Understanding the Priorities Map
Each circle on the map represents a unique project element.
Project elements included in the Priorities Map and Priorities Table are...
- Actions
- Risks
- Assumptions
- Issues
- Dependencies
- Escalations
The vertical (y axis) represents the urgency of the element. The higher it is positioned on the map the greater the urgency associated with the element.
The horizontal (x axis) represents the importance of the element. The further an element is positioned to the right on the map the greater the importance associated with the element.
The standard Eisenhower Method then applies the following logic to items that fall into each quadrant ...
HORIZON PPM goes further than the standard Eisenhower Method and provides two other visual indicators to help with prioritisation.
The size of each element represents the scale to complete/address an element. A larger bubble on the map represents greater effort than smaller bubbles.
Given a small amount of available time it can sometimes be worth fitting in smaller tasks even if they are not urgent or important just to make efficient use of time.
And the colour of each element represents the complexity involved in completing/addressing an element. The bubble colours change from green for easier elements through to reds to represent more complex elements.
Decisions about priorities often have to tackle decisions about accelerating or deferring work based on complexity. Sometimes low hanging fruit can be tackled at a different pace to the elephant tasks. Understanding the (potential) complexity associated with work can help the prioritisation process.
IMPORTANT: All of these dimensions are set and managed by the users. HORIZON PPM does not calculate, suggest or adjust these values.
Accessing Priorities
Priorities can be accessed from 3 locations within HORIZON PPM...
Project Home
The Priorities Map is available on the Project Home. The map is hidden by default. Click the toggle bar to reveal it.
Priorities are also accessible from the left-hand side navigation bar...
Priorities Map
The Priorities map provides the Actionable Intelligence across the project. it provides a single pane of the important and urgent project elements, with the added dimensions of scale and complexity - all in the same view.
Each individual project element is represented by a bubble on the map.
Each project element displays an abbreviation within the bubble. These are...
- Ac = Action
- R = Risk
- As = Assumption
- I= Issue
- D = Dependency
- E = Escalation
Viewing/Managing a Project Element
Hovering the mouse cursor over bubble on the Priorities Map displays a summary tooltip...
And clicking on the bubble opens the editor displaying all the details for the selected element.
These are common in theme, but vary in detail depending on the type of element that is selected. Selecting an Action will open the Action editor. Selecting a Risk will open the Risk editor.
See the relevant pages for more details for each element type...
Priorities Table
The Priorities Table presents the the same information as the Priorities Map - just in a table format.
The table rows can be searched; column rows are sortable; and like the other tables across HORIZON PPM the data can be exported (to Excel, CSV or PDF).