How to run a project prioritisation process using bubble charts
- Jan 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 24
Creating a Project Prioritisation Bubble chart in Microsoft Excel or Power BI is not too hard (I have provided you a working template below).
The tricky challenge is how to design and calibrate a scoring process that avoids subjectivity, represents organisational priorities and is easy to understand. If you are successful in implementing the approach outlined in this article, you will be able to assist your leadership team, choose the best projects and resource investments to deliver the most value to your organisation.

Where and why will I use this?
Project Prioritisation Bubble Charts are a decision support tool used by organisational leaders to determine if they are investing their time and resources in the right projects. Bubble Charts are the tip of the iceberg supported by a project prioritisation framework and governance practices aligned to your organisations strategy and values.
Project Prioritisation Frameworks are typically operated by your Project Management Office (PMO) at the department or enterprise level. When implemented correctly everyone across your organisation will know how the project they are proposing, will stack up against your organisation’s priorities and strategic alignment.
How do I design the Project Scoring?
Projects are scored based on their value (benefits and strategic alignment) and their complexity (cost, resourcing, risk and change management challenge). These criteria are best brought together on a matrix chart with multiple (4 to 6) value and complexity project outcomes that best represent key aspects of projects in your organisation.
Value criteria may include benefits like customer service/experience improvements, sales/revenue, profit/shareholder returns, organisational growth, staff development/staff engagement.
Complexity criteria may include factors like capital investment, resourcing costs, operational cost impacts, implementation risk, change management complexity, and technical risk.
Once you have your value and complexity criteria you need to develop tangible defining characteristics for multiple levels of achievement scaled to the benefits scope of the projects within that portfolio. This may look like the following table:

The final step to develop the scoring method is to balance the defining characteristics metrics scoring numbers and weightings of each value and complexity criteria using an Excel formula to provide a score between 0 and 10 for each axis of the bubble chart. This is best done by testing your scoring method based on existing projects and calibrating these metrics and scoring formula in consultation with your organisations leadership team until you achieve a consensus.
Finally, you will need to design a means to score the project costs between 0 and 10 or represented as a percentage (100% being your largest project cost). This is used to scale the bubble size to give your stakeholders a relative impression of the size of each project. Some organisations use cost, others use project team size and duration to calculate a score to size the bubbles on their charts.
The table below is an example of the project information required to create a project prioritisation bubble chart.

How do I implement a Project Prioritisation Framework?
This process is dependent on having an existing project intake process and an established meeting rhythm with your leadership team for the approval of new projects and monitoring projects underway.
Engage your organisations leadership team and sell them on the benefits. If you do not have your leadership team enthusiastic about using the project scoring when approving new projects, you will lose business project owner engagement, and it will be quickly sidelined.
Spend time scoring projects with business project owners until they are comfortable with the process. In many cases you will be making them look beyond their narrow departmental priorities and consider organisational impacts and enterprise strategic alignment which is a great growth outcome all round.
Make it simple for the project owners to score their own projects and provide their own prioritisation scoring assessments when they submit a Project Charter for executive approval.
Remember, as a PMO professional your job is to be an adviser to both your leadership team and your business project owners/ project teams. By having a transparent project prioritisation scoring methodology you can ensure good governance and decision making without being perceived as a roadblock to getting projects done
I hope this helps, feel free to ask questions in the comments and I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible.
Download the example Excel File here
I have to thank a brilliant consultant Phillip Maisel of Phoebus Consulting who shared this approach with me in late 2011.