Project selection for technology investment

Abstract

Aerojet is a leading manufacturer of propulsion systems for military and space applications. Like all technology companies, Aerojet faces the challenge of allocating limited research and development (R&D) funds among competing technology projects with uncertain rewards. This paper describes the design and implementation of improvements to an annual process for selecting a portfolio of R&D project investments. These improvements streamline the process by which company experts provide their opinions on qualitative aspects of candidate R&D projects. A questionnaire was designed which gathers expert opinion regarding a technology's potential impact, strategic fit, technical risk, completion deadline, and appeal. Responses are complied by a scoring algorithm. The output of the algorithm is a prioritized list of technologies for next year's investment of R&D funds. In order to allow Aerojet to potentially make use of this method, this project implemented a prototype decision support system (DSS) within Microsoft access.