1.1

List the issues on a flip chart and use the experience, knowledge, and judgement of the team to decide on the key issues. Use MoSCoW: must haves, should haves, could haves and won't haves. This will probably result in too much discussion or even generate arguments. Consequently, a voting process will be needed for a quicker selection; see 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2

List the issues on a flip chart and use a simple voting process.

1. Identify the decision‐making criteria such as ‘the most likely cause of the problem’ or ‘the least cost and shortest schedule’ and so on.
2. The number of single votes per person is equal to the number of issues x 0.2. If you think it is desirable to have a greater number of votes, increase the multiplying factor.
3. Each person allocates their votes to the idea or ideas they feel are most likely to succeed. For example, if the participants have four votes, one person may give three votes to idea number 4 and one vote to idea number 7. Add up all the votes, and select the most popular solution.

1.3

Again, list the issues on a flip chart, and use a prioritising voting process:

1. As above, identify the decision‐making criteria.
2. Give each participant five votes and ask them to select five choices, giving five points to their most preferred choice, four points to their next preferred choice and so on.
3. In order to save time, ask each participant to mark their choices directly onto the flip chart.
4. All votes are then added up, and those with no points or with only two or three points are eliminated. This should reduce the list to a manageable five to ten items.

2.1

Use a two‐by‐two graphical plot of importance versus urgency. See Figure VI.H.1 below.

1. It may seem strange to have high urgency but low importance as a number one priority. However, if you are one of those people who get anxious or whose brain gets befuddled if there are too many issues to deal with at once, then get rid of a lot of them by dealing with them first – but only spend a few minutes on each of them. Limit your time on these items to twenty minutes to half an hour maximum.
2. You will now have a clear head to deal with the ones that matter, the number two priority in the figure.
3. Having got rid of the reactive issues, you can spend some time dealing with the issues that are proactive (number three in figure), the ones that your job is about and help move the project forward.

2.2

Use a two‐by‐two graphical plot of impact versus difficulty, see Figure VI.H.2.

1. This is fairly self‐evident. Deal with the easy ones that will provide the most impact first, then the ones that will provide results but are more difficult to tackle. Finally, if you have time, deal with the easy ones that provide least returns.
2. You could use importance and urgency in conjunction with your number 1's and 2's to help sort out your priorities.

2.3

For prioritising the identified risks, use a two‐by‐two graphical plot of probability against impact (Figure V.M.2). Alternatively, plot risk (impact x probability) versus the management effort required to resolve the issue (Figure V.M.3).

3.1

This is an effective but time‐consuming tool for reaching consensus in a group. Everyone is involved in the process, and the process is seen to be fair. Produce a pre‐printed form as shown in Figure VI.H.3, and issue a copy to every member of the group. Brainstorm as described in Section K, subsection 1 in order to identify all the issues, solutions or options, and so on. If necessary, use any of the above techniques to reduce the number of issues to a manageable number. Ten should be enough. They should then be written up clearly and neatly on a flip chart for everyone to see.

3.2

Each member of the group then makes a whole series of choices. Do they prefer issue 1 or issue 2? They then circle their choice on the first line of the chart. Next, do they prefer issue 1 or issue 3, and then circle their choice. Do they prefer issue 1 or issue 4, and so on?

3.3

The next step is to list how many times number one was circled and then number two and so on. The individual then enters the totals in the numbered column on the right of the chart (Figure VI.H.3). They are then ranked in the second column in accordance with the number that was preferred most and then the second highest score and so on.

3.4

Finally, a straightforward mechanistic collection of all the rankings from each member of the group is taken in order to produce an overall ranking.