I suggest you use the structure of the FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) as a reference. The FMEA is a tool used to assess risk and the risk is determined by the product of three categories with rankings of 1 to 10 (1 being very low to 10 being very high using standard tables with definitions for each rank value), severity (how bad the effect of a failure is), occurrence (how often a failure may occur) and detection (how likely we are to detect a failure before it leaves our site).
For example, if a failure mode has a severity of 5, an occurrence of 3, and a detection of 8 then the relative RPN (Risk Priority Number) is the product of those three rankings; i.e. 5 x 3 x 8 = 120 RPN. This objective value allows for classification of lists by associated risk.
Now back to your use case, you have selected an 8 for a new project for a reason. Leverage that reason, the project launch date, and perhaps an additional category of importance to create rankings and automatically assign priority by the product of those rankings.
For example,
Date ranking (DR): New = 10, Greater than 90 days = 5, greater than 180 days = 1
Timing ranking (TR): Late = 10, behind schedule = 5, on time = 1
Cost ranking (CR): Over budget = 10, meeting budget = 5, under budget = 1
Then when you select the raking of each category for a project it will be automatically prioritized for you using a formula filed to calculate the product of the rankings; call it a PPN (Project Priority Number) or something that has meaning to your organization. Sort the list of projects in descending order by PPN and your highest priority projects move to the top and your lowest priority projects move to the bottom.
So for project X,
DR x TR x CR = PPN
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Adam Keever
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