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With the introduction of Microsoft Excel 365 Complete: In Practice, 2021 Edition , and Windows 11, Microsoft makes a fundamental shift from “Office for Us” to “Microsoft with Others.” This change increases the emphasis on collaboration, accessibility of information, and use and display of information and data. Author Randy Nordell utilizes the TIP Approach which promotes the transferability of skills from learning and practice to personal, educational, and professional use. - Topic: Chapter text describes the application feature including where and why it is used. - Instruction: How To’s provide step-by-step transferable instructions and serve as a reference guide. - Practice: Pause & Practice projects within each chapter and end-of-chapter projects (Guided, Independent, Advanced, and Challenge) provide a variety of practice to reinforce learning. SIMnet for Office 2021 redefines student learning at its core with ease-of-use simple navigation, personalized, lifelong access while being committed to measurable results. To learn more about SIMnet, visit https://www.mheducation.com/highered/simnet.html.

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Article • 9 min read

The MoSCoW Method

Understanding project priorities.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

(Also Known As MoSCoW Prioritization and MoSCoW Analysis)

You probably use some form of prioritized To-Do List to manage your daily tasks. But what happens when you're heading up a project that has various stakeholders, each of whom has a different opinion about the importance of different requirements? How do you identify the priority of each task, and communicate that to team members, stakeholders and customers alike?

This is when it's useful to apply a prioritizing tool such as the MoSCoW method. This simple project-management approach helps you, your team, and your stakeholders agree which tasks are critical to a project's success. It also highlights those tasks that can be abandoned if deadlines or resources are threatened.

In this article, we'll examine how you can use the MoSCoW method to prioritize project tasks more efficiently, and ensure that everyone expects the same things.

What Is the MoSCoW Method?

The MoSCoW method was developed by Dai Clegg of Oracle® UK Consulting in the mid-1990s. It's a useful approach for sorting project tasks into critical and non-critical categories.

MoSCoW stands for:

• Must – "Must" requirements are essential to the project's success, and are non-negotiable. If these tasks are missing or incomplete, the project is deemed a failure.
• Should – "Should" items are critical, high-priority tasks that you should complete whenever possible. These are highly important, but can be delivered in a second phase of the project if absolutely necessary.
• Could – "Could" jobs are highly desirable but you can leave them out if there are time or resource constraints.
• Would (or "Won't") – These tasks are desirable (for example, "Would like to have…") but aren't included in this project. You can also use this category for the least critical activities.

The "o"s in MoSCoW are just there to make the acronym pronounceable.

Terms from Clegg, D. and Barker, R. (1994). ' CASE Method Fast-Track: A RAD Approach ,' Amsterdam: Addison-Wesley, 1994. Copyright © Pearson Education Limited. Reproduced with permission.

People often use the MoSCoW method in Agile Project Management . However, you can apply it to any type of project.

MoSCoW helps you manage the scope of your project so that it isn't overwhelmingly large. It is particularly useful when you're working with multiple stakeholders, because it helps everyone agree on what's critical and what is not. The four clearly labeled categories allow people to understand a task's priority easily, which eliminates confusion, misunderstanding, conflict, and disappointment.

For example, some project management tools sort tasks into "high-," "medium-," and "low-" priority categories. But members of the team might have different opinions about what each of these groupings means. And all too often, tasks are labeled "high" priority because everything seems important. This can put a strain on time and resources, and ultimately lead to the project failing.

Using the MoSCoW Method

Follow the steps below to get the most from the MoSCoW method. (This describes using MoSCoW in a conventional "waterfall" project, however the approach is similar with agile projects.)

Step 1: Organize Your Project

It's important that you and your team fully understand your objectives before starting the project.

Write a business case to define your project's goals, its scope and timeline, and exactly what you will deliver. You can also draw up a project charter to plan how you'll approach it.

Next, conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify key people who are involved in the project and to understand how its success will benefit each of them.

Step 2: Write out Your Task List

Once you understand your project's objectives, carry out a Gap Analysis to identify what needs to happen for you to meet your goals.

Step 3: Prioritize Your Task List

Next, work with your stakeholders to prioritize these tasks into the four MoSCoW categories: Must, Should, Could, and Would (or Won't). These conversations can often be "difficult," so brush up on your conflict resolution, group decision making and negotiating skills beforehand!

Rather than starting with all tasks in the Must category and then demoting some of them, it can be helpful to put every task in the Would category first, and then discuss why individual ones deserve to move up the list.

Step 4: Challenge the MoSCoW List

Once you've assigned tasks to the MoSCoW categories, critically challenge each classification.

Be particularly vigilant about which items make it to the Must list. Remember, it is reserved solely for tasks that would result in the project failing if they're not done.

Aim to keep the Must list below 60 percent of the team's available time and effort. The fewer items you have, the higher your chance of success.

Try to reach consensus with everyone in the group. If you can't, you then need to bring in a key decision-maker who has the final say.

Step 5: Communicate Deliverables

Your last step is to share the prioritized list with team members, key stakeholders and customers.

It's important that you communicate the reasons for each categorization, particularly with Must items. Encourage people to discuss any concerns until people fully understand the reasoning.

Zhen is a project manager for a large IT organization. She's working with a team of designers, marketers and developers to redesign a large corporate client's website.

At the initial meeting, each group has strong opinions about which tasks are most important to the project's success, and no one wants to give up their "high priority" objective.

For example, the marketing team is adamant that the new website should gather visitors' personal information, for use in future marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile, the designers are arguing that, while this is important, the site may be more successful if it had a professionally produced streaming video. They also want a feed streaming onto the website's home page from the client's social networking accounts.

The developers counter that the current prototype design won't translate well onto mobile devices, so the top priority is retrofitting the site so people can view it on these.

Zhen can see that, while each priority is important, they're not all critical to the project's success. She decides to use the MoSCoW method to help the group reach consensus on which task is truly "mission critical."

She starts with a key question: "If I came to you the night before rollout and the following task was not done, would you cancel the project?" This question helped everyone in the group drill down to the project's most important priority.

The group finally agreed on the following priorities:

• Must – The retrofit website must be easily viewable on mobile devices.
• Should – There should be a social networking stream included.
• Could – There could be a streaming video on the site to help users.
• Would – Personal information would be gathered for future marketing efforts, but not on this occasion.

The MoSCoW method helped everyone agree on what was truly important for the project's final success.

The MoSCoW method is a simple and highly useful approach that enables you to prioritize project tasks as critical and non-critical. MoSCoW stands for:

• Must – These are tasks that you must complete for the project to be considered a success.
• Should – These are critical activities that are less urgent than Must tasks.
• Could – These items can be taken off the list if time or resources are limited.
• Would – These are tasks that would be nice to have, but can be done at a later date.

The benefit of the MoSCoW approach is that it makes it easy for team members and key stakeholders to understand how important a task is for a project's success.

Apply This to Your Life

Try using the MoSCoW method to prioritize your daily tasks. Look at what you completed at the end of the day. Did prioritizing enable you to get more done?

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Product Management

What is the moscow prioritization method .

February 13, 2024

As far as mnemonics go, MoSCoW prioritization is one of the most effective acronyms in agile scrum software development. The name briefly summarizes a critical and oft-repeated practice of prioritizing items during product planning.

So, what is it? Why do you need it? How to use it? Let’s find out.

What is MoSCoW Prioritization?

Origins and history of moscow prioritization, applicability, communication, drawbacks of the moscow method, #1 must-have, #2 should-have, #3 could-have, #4 won’t-have (this time), when to use the moscow prioritization method, 1. create your product backlog, 2. add details to the product backlog, 3. set definitions for priority categories, 4. collaboratively decide the priorities, 5. set priorities, 6. validate feasibility.

MoSCoW prioritization is a powerful technique used in agile project management for setting priorities for tasks and initiatives. MoSCoW is an acronym that stands for 

• Should-have

Each of these is a category of prioritization, which guides what the team will develop in upcoming sprints. MoSCoW prioritization can be applied to anything within the agile framework, including requirements, test use cases, user stories, bugs/defects, acceptance criteria, or tasks. 

Even beyond agile product development, the MoSCoW model can help prioritize work. Across industries, the MoSCoW method is included in operations management software to help project teams make better decisions.

When there are various other prioritization methods, including the most straightforward high-medium-low scale, why do we need another one? Let’s see how it originated and evolved.

The MoSCoW prioritization technique was developed by Dai Clegg of Oracle in 1994 to help his team sort project tasks into critical and non-critical ones in rapid application development (RAD) processes. He used it specifically in time-boxed projects to prioritize the project’s requirements.

Over the years, this method has become a staple in agile project management . It has been adopted and appreciated for its simplicity and direction on what a team needs to prioritize while running the entire project.

Benefits of the MoSCoW Prioritization Method

Despite being two decades old, the MoSCoW prioritization technique continues to be popular among teams using the ​​Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM). Here’s why.

The MoSCoW technique is ridiculously simple to understand. It helps clarify the options available in front of them to eliminate distractions. (It is not as simple to use, as there can be differences of opinion about what’s must-have and what’s should-have, for instance. We’ll get to that a bit later.) 

The categories provide clarity and reduce confusion. If it’s not a must-have, it’s not going in the next sprint. This ensures the team is stress-free and can focus on doing their best work.

The MoSCoW method helps managers and teams see what is important and needs immediate attention. By classifying a high-priority task as a “must-have,” managers can ensure they have everything they need to finish it. They can also discuss competing priorities as a team. 

The MoSCoW method is nearly universally applicable. It can be used to prioritize anything. For example, a team lead can mark ten developers as must-have and three more as could-have to let their superiors know how many people they need. 

Assigning priority levels in this method is a great starting point for conversations in project planning and sprint planning sessions. Defining something as must-have or won’t-have encourages people to agree or disagree specifically.

MoSCoW prioritization is very effective in preventing scope creep. The clear priorities ensure that any newly added feature goes through the prioritization process, helping project managers manage expectations.

Despite its benefits, the MoSCoW Prioritization method is not without its challenges. We’ll discuss them below.

Ambiguity : Must-haves and won’t-haves are easy to agree on. But should-haves and could-haves might be more ambiguous. While the framework lays out clear definitions, it can turn complex in practice. Moreover, teams often disagree on the definition of won’t-haves—are they left out of this sprint or the entire product?

Oversimplification : This method risks oversimplifying complex agile projects, where tasks cannot be easily categorized into discrete buckets and might not adequately address the interdependencies between tasks.

Subjectivity: Like all methods, MoSCoW prioritization is also subjective. The team has to come together to make task prioritization decisions. Its drawback is that it doesn’t do much to bring objectivity into the process.

Demanding : To prioritize a task in the MoSCoW framework, each must have detailed descriptions and context. For example, a ‘tagging’ feature in an agile project management tool might be a must-have for specific use cases while appearing non-critical. Product owners need to invest time and energy into definitions to categorize accurately.

Single-level : Within the four categories, there is no way to prioritize items further. This assumes equal priority for all must-have items, making it ineffective in planning.

Categories of the MoSCoW Prioritization Method

The MoSCoW prioritization method has four categories: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have.

“Must-have” tasks are critical items for the duration of the current sprint. ‘Must’ in the must-have category is sometimes defined as ‘minimum usable subset.’ This ensures that the iteration enables a minimum level of usability of the features.

A must-have feature typically is critical for the customers, a compliance requirement, or a safety/accessibility prerogative. Without these features, the product itself would be pointless to take to market.

Tasks considered to be “should-have” are second in priority. These tasks are important but not critical for the current timebox and can be deferred if necessary. 

A could-have feature is typically a minor bug fix or performance improvement, without which the product functions, even if not optimally. Teams often use some kind of temporary workaround to manage these items.

The third category is “could-have” tasks, i.e., desirable but unnecessary. The critical difference between should-have and could-have is that the former is important and can considerably impact product success (customer satisfaction, revenue, profitability, etc.), while the latter can be comfortably left out without much damage.

Teams prioritize could-have tasks only if they can be delivered without affecting the development team’s cost or effort. As the situation evolves, could-have items are often re-prioritized and developed.

“Won’t-have” tasks are recognized as not necessary for the project’s current scope. These tasks or features are of the lowest priority and omitted at the first sign of resistance. 

Won’t-have features have a very low impact on the project’s success. They neither harm outcomes nor create additional value. 

As helpful as this technique might be, it’s not universally effective. Here are the situations in which it works best.

MoSCoW prioritization is a great decision-making tool for several personal and professional scenarios. When decluttering your home, instead of asking if an item “sparks joy,” you can ask if it is a “must-have.”

For an agile project manager, it can be a lot more valuable than that. Here’s how.

Time : The primary determinant of MoSCoW analysis is time. The categorization is for the current sprint or timebox. It is highly effective for time-sensitive projects with tight deadlines.

Resources : What if you have a limited team of developers? Use MoSCoW as it helps maximize deliverables within available resources.

Product initiation : Early in the project, you must decide what to focus on first and what makes your minimum viable product (MVP). MoSCoW prioritization can be incredibly useful in guiding these conversations.

However, it’s important to note that MoSCoW may not be suitable for all projects, especially those with complex interdependencies or where all tasks are equally critical. 

How to Implement the MoSCoW Prioritization Method

Successful MoSCoW prioritization needs clear and effective processes. Here is an outline of a process and pointers on how to prioritize your work with any free project management software like ClickUp to get it right.

Before you prioritize tasks for the future release, it is essential to create a list of possibilities. Typically, this is outlined in the product backlog. Based on research and input from cross-functional teams, build a select few from the backlog.

On ClickUp, you can set these as tasks, milestones, features, defects, and more to facilitate better prioritization.

Like we mentioned earlier, one of the non-negotiable factors of MoSCoW prioritization is adequate information about the task. Without the what, why, how, when, and who, it would be impossible to prioritize right. So, add all the information you can gather. This could be:

• Description of the user story
• Business impact
• Engineering impact, such as time/effort estimate
• Measures of success
• Dependencies for other tasks

ClickUp tasks allow you to add sub-tasks, checklists, time estimates, users, tags, custom fields, and more. Use ClickUp’s hierarchy guide to organize information effectively.

What does must-have mean? What parameters should a task have to be considered a must-have? Does the entire team have to agree to categorize something as won’t-have?

The most commonly used methodologies are weighted scoring, the Kano model, or buy-a-feature. If that feels like another layer of frameworks/models, here are a few project prioritization templates you can use. 

Choose yours carefully. It is essential to set these definitions before getting into prioritizing tasks. This would help process standardization for proper priority management . Also, place an escalation matrix so that someone can make a decision in case of disagreements.

To ensure everyone understands and follows your priority definitions, document and publish them on ClickUp Docs . Collaborate on them to ensure the team agrees on them. You can also use ClickUp AI within Docs to summarize longer definitions for easy reference.

With all the foundational work done, it’s time to prioritize. Bring the team together to evaluate every option and set priorities.

Choose from any of ClickUp’s views to see the information that suits your needs. For instance, most agile teams typically use the Kanban board view to have all the uncategorized items in one column and then drag-and-drop them into their relevant priorities. You can also filter items on the Kanban board based on what you’d like to see.

Discuss business requirements openly. Here are a few things to consider.

• Set all tasks as won’t-have and then debate about why you must have it
• For must-have requirements, ask, “Without this item, is the increment as good as canceled?”
• If there is a workaround, even if it’s manual, don’t categorize it as a must-have
• If a must-have has a dependency on anything other than another must-have, re-evaluate it

Remember that something you categorized as a could-have in the previous increment might become a must-have for the next. For example, while building the MVP, you might have categorized some items as could-have because they are not crucial for the current sprint. Once the MVP is launched, these features might become a must-have now.

Once you’ve agreed, set them up on your prioritization tools . ClickUp priorities give you four options: Urgent, high, normal, and low. You can make these MoSCoW priorities.

Alternatively, you can use the MoSCoW method with custom statuses . While setting task priorities on ClickUp, add a line or two in the comments about why you made the decision. This will help future prioritization sessions.

Priorities are not just about what’s important, they’re equally about what can be built within that timebox. You don’t want to overcommit and underdeliver just because you think everything is a must-have.

Before committing to a plan, look for each team member’s current workload and capacity. Use the time estimates for each task to simulate capacity. Use the Workload view to ensure no one is over-stacked.

Prioritize The Right Things with ClickUp

Product teams must remain laser-focused on what’s good for the business and the customer. They need to eliminate distractions. So, project prioritization is a superpower. Good prioritization is as much a choice about what to do as it is about what not to. 

ClickUp’s project management tool is designed to enable exactly this. The hierarchy, task management, priorities, and custom statuses help teams effectively understand and prioritize their work.

The Workload views help ensure the prioritized tasks are deliverable, and the ClickUp Dashboards help keep the priorities on track.  Try ClickUp for free today and build the right thing.

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MoSCoW : Requirements Prioritization Technique

MOSCOW TECHNIQUE - Includes Free Template

Requirements need to be prioritized because stakeholders can’t always have everything they want, or should I say, because we can’t always give them everything they want. This is not because we don’t like their faces but because most projects are faced with a limited budget and time frame. As a BA, how do you ensure you focus on the most important requirements?

The MoSCoW technique is used by analysts and stakeholders for prioritizing requirements in a collaborative fashion.

Using a Human Resources System as an example, here’s an explanation of the MoSCoW Technique:

Defines a requirement that has to be satisfied for the final solution to be acceptable e.g. The HR system “must” store employee leave history.

This is a high-priority requirement that should be included if possible, within the delivery time frame. Workarounds may be available for such requirements and they are not usually considered as time-critical or must-haves. e.g. The HR system “should” allow printing of leave letters.

This is a desirable or nice-to-have requirement (time and resources permitting) but the solution will still be accepted if the functionality is not included e.g. The HR system “could” send out notifications on pending leave dates.

WON’T or WOULD (W)

This represents a requirement that stakeholders want to have, but have agreed will not be implemented in the current version of the system. That is, they have decided it will be postponed till the next round of developments e.g. The HR system “won’t” support remote access but may do so in the next release. 

You'll notice that the HR system features have been discussed in a decreasing order of priority - from what we must have, to what we should have, could have and won't have in that order.

Practical Application

This technique is best used when the BA has gathered all existing solution requirements.

• Assemble all stakeholders – Each stakeholder, with help from the BA, is responsible for assigning priorities to the requirements that fall under their purview
• All Requirements may be listed on a flip chart and prioritised by assigning categories to each (M, S, C or W).
• If there are multiple stakeholders with different opinions on what category to assign to a requirement, voting can be used to reach consensus.
• Present categorized requirements in a readable format - See template here
• The requirements should be reviewed throughout the project as stakeholder needs may evolve with time.

The BABOK Guide provides 8 criteria to be used for assigning priorities to requirements. They are:

• Business Value: Which requirement provides the most business value? The more business value a requirement will deliver, the greater the priority stakeholders may choose to assign to it.
• Business or Technical Risk: Some requirements pose a significant risk of project failure if not implemented successfully. The analyst may assign a high priority to this category of requirements so that if the project does fail, the least amount of effort would have been spent. 
• Implementation Difficulty: Which requirements are the easiest to implement? Straightforward requirements may lead to quick-wins and provide an opportunity for the project team to familiarize themselves with other elements of the project before taking on more complex requirements for implementation. 
• Likelihood of Success: Which requirements can provide quick-wins and increase the probability of project acceptance? If the objective of the project is to demonstrate value as quickly as possible and quell negative chatter, requirements that have a higher probability of success would be given high priority.
• Regulatory Compliance: Which requirements are necessary for policy and regulation adherence? These requirements are non-negotiable and usually have to be implemented within a set period of time, causing them to take precedence over stakeholder requirements in some cases.
• Relationship to other requirements: Which requirements support other high-value business requirements? Such requirements may be assigned a high priority because of their link to important requirements.
• Urgency: Which requirements have a high degree of urgency? Most stakeholders tend to place a high priority on requirements needed like yesterday
• Stakeholder Agreement: Requirements on which stakeholders disagree should be postponed or assigned a low priority until consensus can be reached on their usefulness.

The above criteria can be used for prioritizing requirements by assigning weights to each requirement using a decision table. Requirements with the highest scores receive greater priority than those with lower scores. Other useful techniques for requirements prioritization are  time-boxing  and  voting.

MoSCoW technique was introduced by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994.

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• Problem tracking technique
• Document Analysis

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