Building a ROM (Rough Order of Magnitude) Priority Score for Project Intake

Use case: You're running a project intake or pipeline board and want to collect ROM-level business case data from project submitters, then automatically calculate a priority score to help your PMO triage and rank incoming proposals.

In this article we'll walk through:

1. What ROM data to capture and which property types to use

2. How to set up the custom properties on your pipeline board

3. How to write an Expression that calculates an overall ROM Priority Score

4. How to band that score into actionable priority categories

5. Tips for keeping your pipeline data clean and consistent

A ROM (Rough Order of Magnitude) estimate is an early-stage approximation — typically ±25–50% accuracy — used to compare and rank project proposals before a detailed business case is developed.

To build a useful ROM scoring model in Fluid you need three things:

💡 Tip: All of the custom properties below are created in Administration Console → Data Administration → Custom Properties against the relevant entity (e.g., Project or Board Item). See Setting up Custom Properties for a refresher.

Create the following custom properties. We've grouped them by category to keep your submission form organised.

A. Strategic Alignment

Using a Valued Option means each selection carries a numeric value you can reference directly in expressions — no extra mapping needed.

B. Financial Estimates

C. Effort & Complexity

⚠️ Notice that Complexity and Technical Risk are scored inversely — lower complexity = higher score — because lower complexity is more favourable for feasibility.

D. Business Impact

E. Readiness & Confidence

Now for the fun part. Create a new Number custom property called ROM Priority Score and set its value using a Dynamic Logic Expression.

The model uses five weighted dimensions:

The full expression

Code

(COALESCE([_StrategicAlignment-Value], 0) * 0.30)
+
(
  IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0 AND COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) = 0, 50,
    IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0 AND COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) > 0, 100,
      IF(COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) / IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0, 1, COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0)) >= 3, 100,
        IF(COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) / IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0, 1, COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0)) >= 2, 80,
          IF(COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) / IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0, 1, COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0)) >= 1, 60,
            IF(COALESCE([_ROMAnnualBenefit], 0) / IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0, 1, COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0)) >= 0.5, 40,
              20
            )
          )
        )
      )
    )
  )
* 0.25)
+
(
  (COALESCE([_BusinessUrgency-Value], 0) * 0.40
  + COALESCE([_ImpactScope-Value], 0) * 0.35
  + COALESCE([_CustomerImpact-Value], 0) * 0.25)
* 0.25)
+
(
  (COALESCE([_Complexity-Value], 0) * 0.35
  + COALESCE([_TechnicalRisk-Value], 0) * 0.25
  + COALESCE([_ResourceAvailability-Value], 0) * 0.25
  + COALESCE([_ROMConfidenceLevel-Value], 0) * 0.15)
* 0.15)
+
(IF([_RegulatoryCompliance] = true, 100, 0) * 0.05)

💡 Why COALESCE? During early intake, submitters may leave fields blank. Wrapping every field reference in COALESCE([_Field], 0) ensures the expression evaluates safely instead of returning an error. See Dynamic Logic Expressions for more on safe expression patterns.

💡 Why the nested IF on cost? We guard against division by zero by checking IF(COALESCE([_ROMCostEstimate], 0) = 0, 1, ...) before dividing. This is the same pattern recommended in the RICE/WSJF prioritisation article.

Create a second custom property called ROM Priority Band (type: Text or Option, driven by expression) with this expression:

Code

CASE(
  [_ROMPriorityScore] >= 80, "🔴 Must Do",
  [_ROMPriorityScore] >= 60, "🟠 Should Do",
  [_ROMPriorityScore] >= 40, "🟡 Could Do",
  [_ROMPriorityScore] >= 20, "🔵 Watch",
  "⚪ Deprioritise"
)

Let's say a project called "Customer Portal Modernisation" is submitted with:

Step-by-step calculation:

Result: 🟠 Should Do — proceed to full business case with standard governance review.

• Setting up Custom Properties

• Dynamic Logic Expressions

• Building prioritisation frameworks (RICE and WSJF) using Expressions

• Referencing Person Properties in Lookup Expressions