Team Members and Matrix

¶ … Prioritization Matrix and its Alternatives

Priorities, priorities, priorities -- have a sense of your organization's priorities! Although the value of prioritization is undeniably an important one, how does a developer adequately prioritize different tasks and elements of the software lifecycle and general production process? One such a tool is a "Prioritization Matrix." This is a useful technique for developers of new software projects, because a developer can deploy the non-technical framework of the matrix both with his or her team members on the task, or with necessary, with the potential users of the new system. The matrix can be used to achieve consensus about what is important, as it requires individuals to rank problems, issues, and objectives by a particular criterion that is important to the system and to the organization as a whole. ("Prioritization Matrix," 1998)

The democratic aspect of the conventional Prioritization Matrix enables everyone involved clearly see which problems are the most important to work on solving first. However, one of the problems of the Prioritization Matrix is that it generates data that appears to be objective, such as 'solving the problem of system encroachments ranks a one' or 'increasing the rate of data flow ranks a five,' but which are often rather subjectively generated, based only upon the perceptions of the individuals generating the list rather than the organizational competitors of the company. Also, the focus is on individual desires rather than on viewing the organization holistically in terms of its needs as an entity over the course of the long-term. An individual barrage of brainstorming usually generates the matrix categories. Although there is a stab at objectivity made in the format, by ranking the brainstormed problems according to frequency, importance, and feasibility in terms of potential problems, approach and design, again, these categories themselves are not absolute in their importance. ("Prioritization Matrix," 1998)