Priority One! Helping you focus on what's most important Introduction I wrote this little utility to implement a technique I learned at a Total Quality Management seminar. The idea was that if you had a number of options (for activities, purchases, strategic planning, etc.), you could organize your thinking by selecting one of each possible pair of options and then rank order the options by the number of times each "won" an encounter with another. Since the paper form for this exercise was unwieldy for a large number of options, I wrote this program. Priority One! for Windows allows you to list up to 15 options. Then the program leads you through the comparison process, presenting all possible pairs and allowing you to choose the better or more important in each pair. (For those who care, if there are n options, there will be n*(n - 1)/2 comparisons.) Then Priority One! displays your results and gives you the option of printing the prioritized list. You also can revise your list and work through the process as often as you like before exiting the program. Priority One! has many applications: individuals clarifying their priorities (One of my sons used it to find out that one of his activities wasn't as important as he thought when compared to other things we wanted to do.), companies or individuals making a purchase, organizations evaluating their goals as part of strategic planning. Installation No special installation is required. If you're reading this document, you've already unzipped PRIORONE.ZIP and discovered PRIORONE.EXE. It is ready to be run from Windows either by selecting File..Run and typing the path (example, C:\PRIORITY\PRIORONE.EXE) or putting it as a new program item in one of your application groups. As with all software developed with Visual Basic, you'll need the file VBRUN300.DLL in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. This file is available on most services featuring downloadable shareware. Execution Step 1: Naming your options After the opening screen, you'll see a screen with 15 boxes on it. Type your options into the boxes. You can use the TAB key to move from box to box or click on a box with the mouse. You can list as many options as you want (up to 15), but it is important not to skip any boxes. The program will process options until it sees a blank box so it won't see any text below a blank box. When you have finished listing your options, click on or type alt-R. (In deference to my son who doesn't like to use the mouse, all command buttons have hot keys. Pressing the alt key and the underlined letter simultaneously will activate any button.) Step 2: Ranking the options When you click on Ready to process, Priority One! will erase the option boxes and begin presenting the options in pairs. You will see two options and two buttons. One button says "Item 1 is better or more important" and the other says "The selection has been made." When the first button says "Item 1..." the top option is highlighted. If option 2 is the one you think is more important, click on the button. The highlighting will go to option 2, and the button will say "Item 2 is better or more important." When the highlighting and the words on the button indicate your choice, click on and the program will show the next pair. A case can be made that the words in the button should indicate a choice opposite to the highlighted option. That is, if option 1 is highlighted, the button should read "Item 2 is more important" indicating that's the button to push if you want to change the highlighted status. I decided to make the words showing on the button and the highlighted option agree because I think there is less potential for confusion. Remember, the highlighted option and the words on the button always agree. If you don't like that choice, click the button to change both the words and then highlighting. Step 3: Using your rankings After you have made all your choices, Priority One! will display your rank-ordered list with the number of "votes" each option received. In the case of ties, the order is always the order in which you entered the items. At this point, you have several options. - You can revise your list, click on and prioritize again. Remember, if you delete an item from the middle of the list, fill in its space with your last item so you won't have any gaps. You can use standard Windows Cut and Paste procedures to move an item. If you delete an item from the middle of the list without filling in its space, nothing past the blank box will be included in the pairwise prioritizing sequence. You may, however, see the items below the blank listed in the next screen priorities list with "0" votes. Then you'll remember to fill in the blank boxes! - You can print your list. Click on . A box comes up for you to type in the title you want on the printout (descriptive title, date, etc.) as well as a list of fonts available on your computer. Type in the title, TAB to the font list, arrow down or use the mouse to highlight a font, and click on OK. - After you print the list, you always have the option to revise the list and work through the rank ordering process as many times as you like. - You can exit the program at any time. Click on the button. Step 4: Interpreting the results A word of caution is in order. No computer program or mathematically-oriented procedure can make decisions for you. Your judgment is the key ingredient in this process: deciding what items are to be ranked, determining the more important of two options in the pairs, and making the final decision based (in part) on the numerical results of your prioritizing are all exercises in judgment. It's not "cheating," in cases where only one choice can be made, not to choose the highest ranking item. Other factors might have to be considered. Registration If you enjoy using Priority One!, you are invited to register it by sending a check for $19.68 to Creative Solutions 142 Buckeye Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80919 You will receive an advanced version of Priority One! which includes a two dimensional decision-making model of which the prioritization process of this introductory version can be a first step. Advanced Priority One! allows you to rate items on several different criteria (example: price, quality, style,..), weigh the criteria (example: price is most important, then quality...), and see the combined effect of your ratings. The advanced version is suitable for helping make (or validate) complex decisions such as hiring or puchasing. About Creative Solutions Creative Solutions is a consulting service of Dr. Bob Ewell who specializes in solving business and organizational problems through the creative application of analysis, research, and training ("the ART of problem solving"). Recent projects include designing and analyzing management environment surveys, evaluating corporate training programs, assessing the effectiveness of experimental education programs for K-12 teachers, interpreting technical mathematical articles by developing software to validate or implement concepts, and conducting corporate training in areas of stress management and effective communications. I welcome your suggestions on Priority One! or questions with respect to the consulting services. I can be reached at 719-531-9129, FAX 719-548-1301, e-mail: 76346.1612@compuserve.com or bobewell@aol.com. The source code of Priority One! (written in Visual Basic 3.0) is copyrighted by Dr. Robert Ewell, Creative Solutions, January 1995. Windows and Visual Basic are products and registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE IS OFFERED "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. GOOD DATA PROCESSING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF CREATIVE SOLUTIONS WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.