Buridan and portfolio management

From one of those interesting search chains, Buridan's Ass came to our attention. Buridan's Ass refers to a paradox based on the impossibility of choosing between two equally appealing alternatives. The research theme was portfolio management and the process for prioritisation and selection.

For making a choice within a project, for instance between two packages, there are some well established evaluation techniques such as Kempner Tregoe. These depend on evaluation criteria than can be compared across alternatives - cost, performance, functionality, user acceptability, regulatory compliance, etc.
Portfolio selections frequently don't have such easy measures for comparison which is why clarity of portfolio goals is so important. This is where tying in to corporate goals is crucial and strategies such as balanced score card help to integrate performance goals with portfolio decision making. This paper gives some interesting descriptions and refrerences in this area.
Decision Model based on Balanced Score Card