Decision making and project selection: an innovative MCDM methodology for a technology company

In the nowadays companies the attention to the decisional problems is growing, since they face with rapid changes in technology context. It is important for CEO and TOP management to take fast, fact-based and Data-Driven decisions in a such dynamic environment. Consequently, the project selection phase is recognized as crucial activity. It becomes particularly important to address the future investments, both from financial and economic point of view, and for other factors such as: The alignment with the Business needs, the technology context, other external agents and trends on the market. Moreover, a correct project selection can improve the respect of products/services time-to-market delivery with high-quality standards. The paper describes the design, development and test of a decision support system for projects ranking during the selection phase. The selection and prioritization of the projects in Portfolio is characterized by multitude of criteria and constrains. Therefore, the analysis through Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) has been carried out. The MCDM, the project selection models and Frameworks have been deeply investigated by applying PRISMA methodology in order to find an optimization to Project Portfolio problems for industrial application. Therefore, the model is designed, developed and tested using the ANP (Analytical Network Process) and Fuzzy-TOPSIS methods. The systematic literature review allowed to investigate the methodologies frequently used and applied in literature, in order to find the suitable one in this research field. This research describes an innovative methodology, easy-to-use to support the Managers in projects ranking with rapid and reliable response. The strategic objectives of the company have been analyzed and declined in Critical Success Factors. Further, a wide range of indicators have been chosen, weighted and selected. The ANP (Analytical Network Process) network has been designed and developed, with the support of Managers and Project Managers expertise in this field, in order to fine-tuning the system for the company use. After the selection of the indicators, though the Fuzzy-TOPSIS methodology the projects ranking has been performed and tested with 26 Projects carried on in FSTechnology, the tech-company within the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group.