Overview: Analyze and approve project proposals (Project Server 2010)
Applies to: Project Server 2010
Topic Last Modified: 2011-04-13
Microsoft Project Server 2010 includes new features to help you evaluate whether project proposals fit in with your organization's business strategy and with its financial and resource constraints. Once the appropriate people have determined which proposals make the most sense to implement, then the proposals can be approved as projects.
Note
This article assumes that proposals have already been submitted. For more information about proposals, see Overview: Set up and submit project proposals (Project Server 2010).
What do you want to do?
Analyze proposals
Approve proposals
Analyze proposals
When users submit project proposals for review, the portfolio manager is responsible for guiding them through the analysis process. Reviewers analyze the proposals to determine whether they are viable projects for your organization. If a project is considered viable, it is approved and becomes part of your organization's project portfolio. This process is also known as portfolio analysis.
What kinds of things are reviewers analyzing when they review project proposals?
First, reviewers look at the relative priority of each proposal. How well does this proposal fit in with what your business is trying to achieve? The portfolio manager helps the reviewers evaluate the proposal's effect on the organization's business drivers, resulting in a rated list of all of the proposals included in the analysis.
Then, the reviewers examine each proposal's value, relative to the organization's high-level cost constraints. If a proposal will cost more than your budget allows, it may not be a viable project for your organization.
Finally, the reviewers examine each proposal's resource requirements. Does the proposal require an unreasonable number of resources given its schedule needs? Reviewers examine how adjusting the number of resources or the schedule will affect whether the proposal is a viable project.
After reviewing these factors, a subset of the proposals will stand out as having the greatest strategic value with the most reasonable cost and resource needs. These proposals are selected for approval as projects.
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
Create analyses and prioritize projects (Project Server 2010) |
Create an analysis, where you try different ways of fitting proposals into your portfolio and prioritize the proposals you are analyzing. |
Analyze portfolio based on high-level cost constraints (Project Server 2010) |
Reviewers evaluate each proposal's effect on your organization's budget. |
Analyze portfolio based on time-phased resource requirements (Project Server 2010) |
Reviewers evaluate each proposal's resource and schedule needs, and they try to find a balance that works with the portfolio. |
Commit selection decisions and communicate to portfolio stakeholders (Project Server 2010) |
The selection decisions are made, and stakeholders are notified. |
Approve proposals
Once selection decisions are made, the next step is to approve the proposals as projects.
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
Use the Workflow Tasks page in Microsoft Project Web App to review and approve or reject a project proposal. |