Information entropy method for project portfolio selection

Abstract

Project portfolio management is about making strategic choices, resource allocation. Project portfolio management has been considered as the bridge between enterprise strategic management and project management. It focuses on project selection and chooses the right projects from the many opportunities the enterprises face. There are relative popularity of various portfolio selection methods—from financial methods to strategic approaches, bubble diagrams and scoring approaches. Popular methods are investigated and compared in this research. Although conceptually appealing and perhaps the most rigorous mathematically based portfolio models see more visibility in text books and journal articles than in corporate offices. The authors provide an information entropy method for project portfolio selection. Besides combining several important methods and criteria, information entropy weights acted as weight coefficients for evaluating criteria in order to avoid uncertainty and randomicity of subjective judgments. The method proposed in this paper provides a quantificational evaluation method for enterprises to select project and project portfolio.