BOCR analysis: a framework for forming portfolio of developing projects

The pressure exerted by citizens (mainly in developing countries) to dispose of high standards in terms of quality of life (modern infrastructures and bearable environment) along with scarce financial resources that countries are facing, render selection and investment in developing projects very challenging for decision makers (national government, regional authorities, municipal councils, etc.). Indeed, modern life requirements are so antagonistic that projects to undertake to satisfy them are so different in nature that, it becomes difficult to evaluate them in order to select the most suitable ones to form projects portfolio with classical decision making tools. These constraints appeal for sound and integrated methods, tools or framework to support addressing developing projects portfolio forming and managing process. In this chapter, recent developments in decision analysis in terms of BOCR (Benefit, Opportunity, Cost, and Risk) analysis, that result from considering the fact that attributes that characterize projects may support or reject decision makers goals and inherent uncertainty that do exist in relationships between different components of such decision problems will be exposed. This framework has the advantage to permit to evaluate projects of different nature (characterized by non-homogeneous attributes or criteria); the important things being the relationships (supporting or rejecting) between these attributes and the pursued objectives