Project selection for group decision making using analytical hierarchy process: A private college perspective

Selection of the right projects is considerably critical for organizations to successfully achieve their competitive advantages and corporate strategies. Due to limited resources and dynamic changes in the business environment, selection of projects is quite challenging. The main purpose of this case study was to identify the project selection criteria that best meet the requirements of a well-diversified group of companies. Decision makers need a structured approach for decision making that allows the necessary trade-offs in a systematic fashion, in light of all of the considerations at hand. One structured approach to decision making that may work well is Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) which uses simple judgment known as pair-wise comparison. This paper reports the results of a case study where the AHP technique was employed to support the project selection in a multi-criteria environment. Six selection criteria and four alternatives projects were identified. The selection criteria include financial aspect, strategy, risk, urgency, contractor availability and technical knowledge. The AHP technique successfully helped the group decision makers to single out the most appropriate project that best suits the organization’s operational needs and prioritize these projects accordingl

Scaling up a Project Portfolio Selection Technique by using Multiobjective Genetic Optimization

This paper proposes a multiobjective heuristic search approach to support a project portfolio selection technique on scenarios with a large number of candidate projects. The original formulation for the technique requires analyzing all combinations of the candidate projects, which turns to be unfeasible when more than a few alternatives are available. We have used a multiobjective genetic algorithm to partially explore the search space of project combinations and select the most effective ones. We present an experimental study based on four real-world project selection problems that compares the results found by the genetic algorithm to those yielded by a non-systematic search procedure (random search). A second experimental study evaluates the best parameter settings to perform the heuristic search. Experimental results show evidence that the project selection technique can be used in large-scale scenarios and that the genetic algorithm presents better results than simpler search strategies

Project selection for group decision making: a multiple project perspective from Pakistan

Decision making is one of the primary functions of management. Making strategic decisions are important to achieve organisational efficiency and effectiveness. In the selection of projects, it is necessary for organisations to prioritise their projects due to limited resources. Therefore, the selection of projects that bring value and substantial impact on the organisation is very important to ensure that they can compete in the dynamic external environment and meet the goals and objectives. From the case study, the result suggests that the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method can contribute significantly to the identification of sources that need further clarification of attributes and criteria and at the same time it can provide a systematic analytical tool in making a group decision. This method allows the organisation to prioritize its projects based on certain criteria as it is a quantitative decision support tool. In conclusion, AHP is the best and efficient method for decision makers to consider all facts, weigh the pluses and minuses, reach, reevaluate and communicate their decisions