Project Prioritisation Matrix Calculator
Rank your improvement pipeline with objective scoring rubrics instead of opinion. Score every project against six weighted criteria and see which one to charter first, which to plan, and which to defer.
🎯 What this calculator does
This tool ranks competing improvement projects using a weighted scoring model. You score each project against six criteria, the calculator applies your weights, and it returns a single percentage score plus a priority band for every project in your pipeline.
The scoring is anchored. Each criterion carries a rubric that tells you what a 9 looks like and what a 3 looks like. That is the difference between a matrix people trust and a matrix people argue about. Two managers scoring the same project on the same rubric should land within one band of each other.
Use it when you have more project ideas than Belt capacity. Most organisations do. The matrix stops the loudest sponsor winning by default and gives you a defensible record of why one project went first.
In plain words. Every criterion is scored from 1 to 10. That score is converted to a share of the criterion weight. Financial Impact carries 25 points, so a project scoring 7.5 out of 10 collects 18.75 of those 25 points. Add the six contributions together and you get a total out of 100.
📋 How to use it
- Open the Calculator tab and check the six criterion weights. The defaults total 100 and suit most improvement programmes.
- Adjust the weights to match your strategy. If safety and compliance drive your year, lift Risk and Urgency. The total must equal 100 before you can calculate.
- Name each project in plain operational language. Use "reduce weld rework on line 3", not "quality initiative".
- Score each project against every criterion using the rubric bands. Read the band descriptions rather than guessing a number.
- Score with evidence. If nobody can produce a number for financial impact, score it low. Optimism is not data.
- Add every serious candidate. A matrix with two projects tells you nothing about your pipeline.
- Click Calculate rankings. Review the ranked list, the band split and the recommended actions.
- Download the Excel file and attach it to your project charter as the selection record.
📊 Priority bands
| Total score | Priority band | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|---|
| 80 to 100 | Critical priority | Strong on every axis. Charter it now, assign a Black Belt or senior Green Belt and lock the resources this month. |
| 65 to 79.9 | High priority | Clear business case with manageable risk. Schedule a start within three months and name the sponsor. |
| 50 to 64.9 | Medium priority | Worth doing but not urgent. Place it in the next quarter pipeline and revisit the score when conditions change. |
| 35 to 49.9 | Low priority | Weak on the criteria that carry weight. Park it, review in six months, or reduce it to a Just Do It action. |
| Under 35 | Not recommended | The business case does not hold. Decline it formally and record why so the idea does not return unchanged. |
📐 The six criteria and their rubrics
These rubrics are the scoring anchors. Read the band that matches the evidence you hold, then select that band in the Calculator tab.
⚠️ Common mistakes
- Scoring from memory instead of the rubric. The rubric exists to remove personal calibration. Read it every time.
- Setting weights after seeing the scores. Lock the weights before you score, or you will tune the model to the answer you already want.
- Forgetting that Risk is inverted. A high score means low risk. A risky project earns a low number here.
- Scoring alone. Run the scoring with the sponsor, the process owner and a finance contact in the room.
- Treating a two point difference as meaningful. Scores within three points of each other are a tie. Split them on resource availability.
💡 Pro tips
- Score every project independently before you compare them. Comparative scoring drifts towards the middle.
- Keep Financial Impact at or above 20 per cent weight. Programmes that drop it end up chartering projects that never pay for themselves.
- Where two people disagree by more than one band, the gap is usually a missing fact, not a difference of opinion. Go and find the fact.
- Rerun the matrix every quarter. Urgency and strategic alignment move faster than the other four criteria.
- Record the scoring date and the attendees in the Excel export. It becomes your audit trail when someone asks why their project waited.
- If everything scores above 70, your rubric is too generous. Recalibrate against a project that failed.
🔄 Where this sits in DMAIC
This is a Define phase tool. It runs before the project charter, at the point where the programme decides what to work on. The output feeds directly into the charter as the business case justification and into the Voice of Customer work that follows.
Run it in this order. Build the idea pipeline from VOC, complaint data and process performance. Score the pipeline here. Charter the top ranked projects. Take the ranked list to your steering group and use it to say no with evidence.
Load a sample dataset
Each sample loads six real world projects with scores already selected. Use them to see how the ranking behaves before you enter your own pipeline.
Step 1. Set your criterion weights
Weights decide what your organisation values. They must total 100 before the calculator will run.
Step 2. Score each project
Read the band description before you select. Risk is inverted, so a high score means low risk.
No rankings yet
Score your projects in the Calculator tab, then click Calculate rankings.
