Evaluating On‐going Projects and Divisions

There are techniques available for deciding on initial project viability. Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR) and other techniques are well known and widely used in an effort to estimate a project's initial profitability and feasibility. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the use of two of these techniques to evaluate in‐progress projects and to measure the financial performance of an entire group of projects in a division over a specified time period. Many managers would like a system that allows them to evaluate on‐going projects and a system that allows them to state, for example, how one entire division performed, on all of its projects, over the 1990–1995 time period. Among other things, this will allow management to evaluate the performance of one division relative to other divisions.