Possible Project CategoriesThe alignment phase allows executives within organizations to take an active role in identifying all possible project investments that an organization needs to take to achieve its strategic goals. These projects are then categorized according to which strategic objective it fulfils, the business unit it belongs to, risk levels, etc. (See Figure 3 for an example of categories). This categorization provides the information needed for evaluating investments and rating them, which would lead to determining what projects the organization will select. Priorities need to be assigned based upon project interdependencies (some projects could depend on other projects), constraints on funding, resource availability and other factors. A key challenge that faces organizations before selecting the final list of approved capital projects is to ensure that project portfolios have been balanced for risk exposure, return on investment, and line of business goals, among others. Applied against these criteria a final list of projects will be created.