Portfolio prioritisation: choose the method, then make allocation explicit

A portfolio may contain businesses, offers, markets or initiatives, but units must share an analytical level. Identify duplicates, dependencies and mutually exclusive options before scoring.

Specify the output: invest, maintain, test, defer, divest or stop, with horizon and resource envelope. Without that decision, a ranking is only an ordered list.

Ansoff classifies a growth direction. BCG reads growth and relative share. GE-McKinsey builds a multi-factor view of attractiveness and strength. A multi-criteria matrix compares options across defined objectives.

Frameworks may follow one another, but their scores should not be mechanically merged. Keep each method’s units, assumptions and limits.

Gap Analysis compares each unit’s evidenced current state with a dated target and quantifies or qualifies missing capabilities, evidence and resources. Product Life Cycle Analysis adds a maturity hypothesis about sales and profitability without assuming a linear path.

These readings complement BCG, GE-McKinsey and Ansoff. They remain evidence and constraints in the decision file, not scores to add or automatic rules to invest, maintain or exit.

Priority is not allocation. Budget, people, schedule, eligibility thresholds, risk, dependencies and synergies determine feasible combinations.

Portfolio-selection research separates evaluating items from composing a feasible set. A high-ranked project may wait for missing capacity; two medium options may create joint value that separate scores miss.

• Budget and cash
• Skills and capacity
• Dependencies and exclusions
• Synergies
• Risk and reversibility
• Sequence and milestones

The proposed journey associates the decision record with Atlas, portfolio structure with Grid, analysis and synthesis with Plot, and price-volume-cost quantification with Mix. Every hand-off retains its sources, assumptions and validation; the chain does not execute the trade-off on its own.

For each unit, record the decision, amount or capacity, reasons, trade-offs, next evidence and event that reopens the decision. Accountability remains human.