CARVER Matrix

This tool is an extension of a PMI analysis. It uses six categories for ranking. Where in a PMI the focus is on finding plusses and minusses in which ever way you can think of, the CARVER matrix specifies what to think about and the focus is on ranking those categories.

The categories used in CARVER are: Criticality, Accessibility, Return, Vulnerability, Effect, and Recognizability. Its original use and development was done by the US Army for evaluating potential targets.

The use of the CARVER Matrix for personal projects assumes you have a number of different (independent) projects you are considering and you are looking for a way to rank them. From personal experience, assigning a score to each category depends in a large part on personal judgement and can lead to unconsciously pushing for certain outcome.

For every potential project, we assign a value of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) for each CARVER category. We can calculate a total score for each project. The higher the CARVER score, the more "important" a project becomes.

Let's explore the different categories and how to score them for personal projects.

• Criticality. How critical is the project in the grand scheme of things? Will it move you significantly closer to your goal, or is it a nice-to-have item?
• Accessibility. How easy is it to do or complete this project? Can you start this immediately or does it have prerequisites that need to be fulfilled first?
• Return. How great is the expected return with respect to needed time, money and other resources invested?
• (in)Vulnerability. Quick and inexpensive projects are less vulnerable than long, expensive ones. A one-day project will therefore score a high rating, while a six-month project will score much lower. Similarly, an inexpensive project is less vulnerable than an expensive one and will score higher for this categories.
• Effect. If you successfully complete your project, what effect will it have on your life as well as the lives of others? Score for example based on the number of people it will affect.
• Recognizability. Projects with clear goals with clear steps will score higher on recognizability than foggy goals with unclear steps. Having done a similar project also ups the recognizability score.