About this Micro-Course: What is MoSCoW prioritization?

The MoSCoW prioritization is a great technique for scope management, and it’s an essential part of DSDM.

Its use is not even limited to Agile methods and generic methods such as PRINCE2® use it as well. MoSCoW is a combination of the first letters of must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have this-time. In this technique, we assign one of those priorities to each feature, based on the following definitions:

• Must-have: A must-have feature is one that must be in the final product, as the final product would be useless without it (e.g., brakes in a car).
• Should-have: A should-have feature is an important feature of the final product, and we will face problems without it. However, we can find a workaround for the problems and it’s still possible to use the solution without it (e.g., air conditioning in a car).
• Could-have: A could-have feature is a helpful feature that we would like to have in our solution, but it would not create a problem if we didn’t have it (e.g., a rear camera for reversing in a car).
• Won’t-have-this-time: A won’t-have feature may be interesting, but we’re not going to invest in it now.

In a setup like this, we can think of these possibilities:
• The minimum for an acceptable product is the solution that contains all the musthave features.

Want to know more? View the Agile Scrum Handbook by Nader K. Rad