Prioritization matrices are part of the project management and control tools that are used to determine the key issues and evaluate appropriate alternatives to define a set of priorities for implementation. To create a prioritization matrix, the key issues should be prioritized and weighed before the alternatives can even be applied to get the score to rank the different options.
Prioritization matrices are used in brainstorming in order to evaluate different issues based on set criteria to create a prioritized list of items. By doing so, it helps consider the opinions of everyone involved in project planning. With this particular tool, it helps the project managers determine which problems should be solved first to meet the objectives.
There are two types of prioritization matrix used in project management and these include the simple and weighted matrices. The simple matrix uses each facture with equal weightage while the other one places some factors as more important than others. To create the prioritization matrix, the project team needs to brainstorm ideas. Once the ideas have been listed, each should be evaluated and weighted following a set of criteria.
This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.