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Priorities & MoSCoW

One of the most important tasks a PM has on a software development project (maybe in all projects) is setting priorities. Usually time and money is shorter than everybody would like and you have to choose what to develop and what not to develop. It takes communication skills, a lot of negotiation and, at the end; everybody is a little bit frustrated…

If your team is developing software iteratively and incrementally (and you should… but that’s a theme for another post), you have to prioritize each iteration sub-scope.

To make scope more clear, at my company we adopt the MoSCoW list. I believe it originally has roots on DSDM (although it is used similarly on SCRUM, UP and it has elements of Cockburn’s actor-goal list) and it is a very powerful tool.

Simply stated, it is a list of requirements (or actor-goals, or use case titles…) each one prioritized with a letter MSCW (Must, Should, Could and Won’t – that’s the origin of MoSCoW list name). I simplify the explanation to my clients, key-users and team:

  • Ms and Ss: are the scope for this increment;
  • Cs and Ws: will be discussed for the next increment. These are the items “left to the next increment” in the last increment and the new items “discovered” during last increment;
  • For the Ms and Ss, it is interesting to maintain 50%-50% in the classification. If everything is “more important”, than nothing is “more important”. Rarely I can achieve this perfectly, but the discussion is what is important for the team.
  • W’s: are the “no, never” or “someday, maybe… but at THIS MOMENT it is almost impossible”.

I recommend you reading a more formal definition in Wikipedia.

My tips on MoSCoW lists:

  • Be explicit on leaving C’s and W’s out of scope… for now (for this increment);
  • Don’t loose your users’ trust – you should review C’s and W’s before every new increment;
  • Treat changes on these classifications as scope change requests in a good and classic PMI way. You should formalize it and communicate it.

MoSCoW lists are VERY powerful. I work with professional of many countries and in many continents. I can attest it works well in many situations and clients. This tool helps your team in setting the project scope, leaving priorities clear, and in communicating these priorities.

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