A collective efficacy-based approach for bi-objective sustainable project portfolio selection using interdependency network model between projects

The most critical and complex task in project-oriented organizations is selecting a project portfolio with maximum efficiency. Accordingly, conducting a comprehensive analysis of the main parameters affecting this issue using appropriate tools and techniques to optimally select projects in uncertain situations is of great significance. Moreover, these approaches should be aligned with sustainability concepts as a necessity in modern society and include interactions among society, including social interactions, development, and the environment to meet today's needs. Therefore, the present study aimed to provide a comprehensive two-objective sustainable model. This model collected the maximum efficiency of the selected portfolio by making changes in the data envelopment analysis in terms of network interdependency between projects and the potential impact of projects on each other. The direct and indirect connections concluded by interdependency between projects were also determined by a Bayesian network modeling to analyze the criticality and possible impact of a project's failure on each other and on the entire portfolio. Moreover, the proposed comprehensive model provided that the maximum use of organizational resources whit the minimums of organizational goals. The proposed model was first examined on the datasets of 37 previous papers, and its applicability was analyzed. Finally, a real case with 21 projects was employed for implementation. The results showed that the portfolio selected in the case study results was always better than the selected portfolio using the traditional two-stage integrated model method. Therefore, selecting a project portfolio using this model demonstrated maximum profit and minimum risk for project-oriented organizations.