Vic Sol2×2: easy to approve × core function
For anyone reviewing an automation portfolio who wants one sheet that stops the same debate from repeating at every committee.
When to use it
- Your portfolio fills up with cheap, fast, easy-to-show initiatives and none touches sales, the supply chain or the plant.
- Every committee reopens which initiative goes first.
- You are asked to approve another automation and cannot tell which core function it changes.
The sheet
Horizontal axis: how easy it is to approve (cheap, fast, easy to show). Vertical axis: whether it touches a core function (sales, operations, supply chain, pricing).
| Hard to approve | Easy to approve | |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Test it at one site | Do it now |
| Peripheral | Drop it | Don't let it grow |
Your 3 biggest initiatives:
| Initiative | Quadrant | Who answers for the result: a business leader or only IT |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
My rule: if a business case cannot name the core function it changes, I send it back.
My decision: ____________________ · Owner: ____________ · Date: ______
How to fill it in 10 minutes
- Write your 3 biggest initiatives, one per line.
- Place each one in its quadrant: whether it touches a core function and how easy it is to approve.
- Apply the quadrant's verdict: core and easy, do it now; core and hard, test it at one site; peripheral and easy, don't let it grow; peripheral and hard, drop it.
- Ask who answers for the result: a business leader or only IT.
The line that is almost always missing
Who answers for the result. A core initiative with no business leader behind it stays an IT project. With the name written down, the verdict is not reopened at the next committee.
To score more than 3 initiatives on several criteria, use the prioritization matrix.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.