Business Process Management Center

Prioritization Matrix

After a brainstorming session, a Prioritization Matrix can help you rank options and issues based on specific criteria (ease of implementation, cost, most likely to increase profits, etc.). Using this matrix, you can evaluate the importance of your criteria as well as your options.

Prioritization Step 1: Criterion vs. Criterion Matrix

The Criterion vs. Criterion matrix allows you to compare the relative importance of criteria. Is cost more important than ease of use? Is functionality more important than performance?

To create a Criterion vs. Criterion Matrix, list the all the criteria under consideration along both the horizontal and vertical axis of the table. Compare each criterion with the others and rate the level of relative importance for each. If the two compared criteria are equally important, place a 1 in the grid. If the criterion on the left is more important than the one at the top, place a 5 in the grid.

If the criterion is uch more important, place a 10 in the grid. If it is less important, mark it with a 1/5 and if it is much less important, mark it with a 1/10. Add the scores for each row to get the criteria score. Add these scores for a grand total. Divide each criteria score by the grand total to get a relative decimal value (the criteria weighting or the relative importance) for each criteria. The criteria with the highest criteria weighting is the most important.