Make Sense Of MoSCoW Prioritization: A Beginner’s Guide

Prioritizing features is a critical activity in product development and project management.

MoSCoW Prioritization is a simple yet effective technique for prioritizing requirements and features.

This guide will provide an overview of MoSCoW Prioritization and how teams can leverage it for better prioritization.

What is MoSCoW Prioritization?

MoSCoW is an acronym that stands for:

M – Must have.
S – Should have.
C – Could have.
W – Won’t have (for now).

It is a prioritization technique that categorizes requirements or features into four categories based on business value, customer requests, time to market, and other factors.

Background

MoSCoW Prioritization helps teams identify the most important features to build first. It enables them to deliver maximum business value in each iteration or release.

Teams can use MoSCoW to:

• Communicate priorities to stakeholders.
• Focus development efforts on must-have features.
• Decide what not to build for an iteration or release.
• Manage scope and expectations.

The technique is simple, flexible, and collaborative. It brings alignment across product, engineering, and business teams.

How to Use MoSCoW Prioritization

Here are some tips on using MoSCoW Prioritization:

• Gather requirements from customers, stakeholders, roadmap, etc.
• Categorize each requirement into one of the four MoSCoW buckets.
• Involve key team members in product, engineering, UX, etc.
• Revisit and re-prioritize as needed before each release cycle.
• Build consensus before finalizing priority buckets.
• Focus first on delivering the ‘Must have’ features.

Benefits of MoSCoW Prioritization

• Improves alignment on priorities and organizational skills.
• Focuses development efforts on the most critical features.
• Enables staged delivery of value.
• Reduces scope creep.
• Easy to adopt without extensive training.
• A flexible technique that can be customized.

Examples of MoSCoW Prioritization

Here are some examples of how MoSCoW can be used to prioritize features:

E-commerce App

• Must-Have: Add to Cart, Checkout process, Payment integration.
• Should Have: Wishlists, Recommendations.
• Could Have: Advanced search, Coupons.
• Won’t Have: Social media integration, Reviews.

Ridesharing App

• Must Have: Driver and rider matching, GPS tracking, Fare calculator.
• Should Have: In-app chat, Favorites list.
• Could Have: Carpooling, Food delivery.
• Won’t Have: Music and entertainment.

Social Media Site

• Must Have: User profiles, News feed, Groups.
• Should Have: Direct messaging, Stories.
• Could Have: Events, Games.
• Won’t Have: Payments, Professional networking.

CRM Platform

• Must Have: Contact management, Lead scoring, Reporting.
• Should Have: Custom fields, Email integration.
• Could Have: Mobile app, AI recommendations.
• Won’t Have: Billing management, Payroll.

Project Management Tool

• Must-Have: Task management, Time tracking, Dashboards.
• Should Have: Gantt charts, Resource management.
• Could Have: Invoicing, Budgeting.
• Won’t Have: Bug tracking, Source code management.

MoSCoW Prioritization for Project Management Software

Must Have

These features are critical for the first release:

• Task management with statuses like To Do, In Progress, and Completed.
• Time tracking per task.

Should Have

These features provide significant value but are lower priority:

• Gantt chart view of tasks.
• Resource management (people allocation).

Could Have

These features are nice to have but lower priority:

• Budget management.
• Invoicing.

Won’t Have

These features will not be built for the first release:

• Bug/issue tracking.
• Source code management.
• Payroll management.

This MoSCoW Prioritization or lean prioritization technique provides a clear roadmap for the engineering team regarding which features to focus on first.

It enables delivering maximum value in the initial release while managing scope and expectations.

The product team can revisit and re-prioritize as needed for subsequent releases.

Summary

MoSCoW Prioritization is a simple yet effective way for teams to align on priorities.

Categorizing requirements into the four buckets enables teams to deliver maximum value in each iteration.

Companies should use MoSCoW Prioritization, Agile Prioritization, and 2X2 Matrix in planning cycles and continue to revisit priorities before each release.

With clear priorities and staged delivery, teams can build products customers love.

Catherine Fitzgerald B.A. M.A. PGDip( Founder )

With 30+ years of experience, Catherine Fitzgerald, B.A., M.A., PGDip, founded Oak Innovation in 1995. Catherine received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from University College Cork. She holds qualifications in Professional Development And Training from University College Galway. She is completing a second Master’s from University College Cork. Since 1995, clients include Apple, Time Warner, and Harvard University.