Project Selection Methods and Initial

Running Head: Principles of Project Management
Project Selection Methods and Initial Documents
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Author’s Note

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Introduction
The following essay is based on the project selection method and initial documents
which will result in understand the project management body of knowledge. The endeavor of
the paper is to highlight the objective of project selection techniques and tools which acts as a
beneficial factor for the organization (Kaiser, El Arbi & Ahlemann, 2015). The purpose of
this paper caters to develop project goals which are aligned with the objectives and aim of the
organization such as reducing cost, improved efficiency, increased revenues and improving
operations. The common approach for project selection used in this essay is Benefit
Measurement Method. The aim of the project selection method can be stated by knowing the
fact that every project cannot be discussed or executed in the organization which is why the
project selection method is used (Redlich & Nemzow, 2015). This is the reason why the
organization are able to evaluate the different possible projects right before the project
initiation and select which project should be initiated respectively.
Project management tools and techniques
The term project management is immense and hence it covers many industries and
requires a variety of skills. It is the techniques which ties the diverse discipline together and
requires the project managers to use and get their job done (Marcella & Rowley, 2015). With
the help of the techniques the managers can develop a project more easily and effectively
regardless of any type of industry or filed they belong to. Now days the management caters to
use the project management software which in return reduce cost and save time. Some of the
techniques used are:
Work Breakdown Structure: with the help of this technique the organization can break down
the work into smaller pieces and make it more manageable (Alotaibi, Sutrisna & Chong,

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2016). According to Project Management Body of Knowledge this technique is “deliverable
oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the team.”
Gantt chart: it is an illustration project management technique which has even more
application for the manager who is handling the project. It assists in creating visual timeline
across the lifecycle of the assignment with the start and end date (Ong, Wang & Zainon,
2016). It assists in scheduling and planning of the task over multiple projects.
PERT: it is a review and evaluation technique which also helps in estimating the budget for
the project. PERT is used to manage the probability by using simple statistical methods. It
breaks down the work in more detailed version.
Critical Path Method: the CPM requires constructing a project model which includes the list
of task and the duration to complete each of the tasks, dependency on each work and the
endpoints.
Kanban: it is used as a project selection technique which helps to manage and monitor the
projects by emphasizing on continual delivery without giving too much burden on the team.
The Kanban assists the project members to work more efficiently together.
Methods used in project selection
Project selection can be defined as the procedure of performing the work and
designing the ideas with highest priority. The project is still in the initial stage and is not yet
implemented because it adds a beneficial factor to provide brief description and measures the
positive outcomes of the planned project. The importance of selecting the right project
management methodology means that selecting the right kind of method which saves the

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company or organization from unreasonable reasons. The attribute of selecting the right kind
of company’s skill requires a bit of calculation which should be conducted by the managers.
There are two different medium of calculation and they are Constrained Optimization method
and Benefit Measurement Method (Chen et al., 2016). The selected method of calculation for
this essay is Benefit Measurement Method.
Benefit Measurement Method
The Benefit Measurement Method can be explained as the most going and applicable
method which can be used directly by the project manager. Hence this method is considered
to be less complex than the constrained optimization technique because this technique does
not require an advanced degree in finance in conducting the below mentioned calculation and
functions (Yu-Hong et al., 2016). This method as the name suggested are rare potential
projects which specifies few models and are compared with the results between the project
candidates. However there are four types of project selection models and they are the murder
board, scoring models, peer review and lastly economic models. On the other hand some of
the commonly used methods are illustrated below:
 Cost Benefit Ratio
 Opportunity cost
 Economic model
 Economic model
 Internal Rate of Return
 Payback period
 Scoring models
 Discounted cash flow
 Net Present Value

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Process to conduct Benefit Measurement Method
The aim of benefit measurement method is to set the activities of the organization and
ensure to make the integrated changes while promoting and implement the techniques used
on the project. To measure this method of project selection it involves the collection, analysis
and consideration to measure the data whether the stakeholders have been able to make
reasonable benefits from the planned methods and techniques (Joslin & Müller 2015). The
commonly used methods are illustrated below:
 Cost Benefit Ratio: this is one of the simplest methods used in this technique as the cost
benefit ratio creates an effective way of communication with the potential value
1233483of the project and its understanding with the terms. However it measures the cost
of investing in any planned project.
 Economic model: it is also known as economic value added which is alike to the cost
benefit ration as it describes the benefits between the revenue and cost which is generated
in one number “profit”.
 Payback period: This technique takes to appear on how extended the company will get
back its expenditures with the exacting intended project.
 Discounted cash flow: It handles the issue of estimate with the in attendance value of the
future earned dollars. This is the best way to calculate the returns which occur over a
period of time rather than straight away after completion.
 Net Present Value: this models help in analyzing the whole lifecycle of the project in the
perspective in terms of earnings (Newcomer, Hatry & Wholey, 2015). There are number
of free essential tools at the manager’s disposal in general which becomes easier in
calculating the NPV in Excel.
 Scoring models: Is the most elastic way of differentiating the project with one another. It
caters to develop the quality which is most vital for the team and company. The criteria of

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the company must be chosen based on the overall risk, profitability and support from the
stakeholders.
 Internal Rate of Return: this method incorporate the Net present value in its computation
by setting the NPV to zero. This means that the cash flow whether positive or negative,
even outs each other. However if the estimated IRR for the project is lower than the
organization’s rate of return then it becomes easy to estimate the project entirely.
 Opportunity cost: it is crucial to understand that the opportunity cost can be great way of
putting certain agendas of the project choices into perspective. For example for project A
and project B are worth $80,000 and $90,000 respectively then the managers must go
with project A where it would give an opportunity cost of $10000.
The different models used for Benefit Measurement Method are:
Murder Board: it is a panel of people who tries to shoot down the current project whereas
the people of the panel acts like devil’s advocate and claims negative aspects which comes
with the implementation of the project (Tofallis, 2015). However based on the panel it is the
project that defines and defends the negative aspects.
Peer Review: this type of model is used to evaluate the projects for each predetermined
category and it is based on the perspective of same type of people in an organization.
Economic model: the economic model is important to achieve the common approaches like
present value, net value and ROI used by the company for project selection.
Initiating Process Groups
In context to initial process groups it consist of process which performs to define a
new project or a new phase for an obtainable project by obtaining the authority to start the

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planned project. While initiating the process of project selection method it is important to
define the financial resources as it plays an integral part of the production process (Hornstein,
2015). There are two processes which are involved in the initiating process group and they
are indentifying stakeholders and develop project character. However the purpose of
initiating the process group is based on receiving the correct financing, authorization and
identification of all the stakeholders.
Conclusion
Hence it can be concluded that the project management selection process is based on
the nature of the project where the managers are working and is planning to cater the team
members with easy techniques and methods while conducting the project. However in order
to make the functioning more smoothly the goals of the company is aligned with the
development management selection procedure and therefore the mangers and the
subordinates understand about the decisions to be made on expenditure.

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Reference
Alotaibi, N. O., Sutrisna, M., & Chong, H. Y. (2016). Guidelines of using project
management tools and techniques to mitigate factors causing delays in public
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Joslin, R., & Müller, R. (2015). Relationships between a project management methodology
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