MoSCoW in Brussels

It is not about geography, nor boring meeting rooms (see picture) but project priorities. We face the same issue as a thousand projects before. The client would like to have a very long list of features, delays are programmed and the budget is too tight. It is becoming time for serious scope cutting, at least the scope of the first delivery.

Setting priorities is the key word and was a simple process in the beginning. Starting with prio 1,2,3 ... a few weeks later splitting the priority 1 into 1.1 and 1.2 ... and the 'game' could go on with 1.1a, 1.1b, etc. Just that suddenly it becomes ridiculous and the numbers loose all meaning. Another example: What's the difference between 6 and 7, for something called 'business value' on a scale of 1 to 10 ?

So we needed to tackle the priority setting and rescoping from a new perspective. And that is where MoSCoW comes in: a prioritisation method using words with a clear meaning. MoSCoW is the acronym for:
- Must have
- Should have
- Can have
- Won't have

So far the first results are positive, delivering a basis to discuss & challenge the real business needs for a first release.