MoSCoW method

The Moscow Prioritization is a method that is used in the field of project management and enables the project manager to implement the requirements to prioritize according to their importance and their impact. The origins of the Moscow- prioritization in the Dynamic Systems Development Method.

Moscow is an acronym and stands for:

  • M - MUST (required )
  • S - SHOULD ( should be implemented if all the MUST requirements can still be met)
  • C - COULD (can be implemented if the performance is not affected by high-order requirements)
  • W - WILL NOT ( is not this time implemented, but bookmarked for the future )

The lowercase letters in the acronym are available only for the purpose of better readability and have no other function.

Definition

MUST

MUST referred requirements that are essentially important and non-negotiable for the project. A completely or partially lack implementation would lead to failure of the project. Requirement of this type are summarized in the project time-box. MUST is also an acronym - Minimum Usable Subset - and represents a minimum requirement.

SHOULD

Although SHOULD requirements are not critical success factors for the project, they have a high relevance and should, where no interference occurs from MUST requirements are taken into account with the project implementation. SHOULD requirements can often be implemented in various ways.

COULD

COULD requirements have little relevance and are often referred to as a nice to have. They will only be considered if in addition to the priority processing of MUST and SHOULD requirements capacities are still available. But COULD requirements should not be ignored a lump sum. Often, a few easy to implement COULD requirements generate a significant added value with minimal additional development costs.

WILL NOT

WILL NOT requirements are for the current project or the current planning section of lowest priority. However, and this is one of the biggest advantages of Moscow, shows the classification as WILL NOT that the request is technically and / or technically important, but not time- critical. For classified requirements are not forgotten and will be reconsidered at the next release.

A good WILL NOT list causes three key effects:

The advantages of the Moscow- prioritization method are that may be in contrast to a simple numeralen 1-to- 3- prioritization defines clear and understandable, which requirements are time-critical and the greatest business impact have. He will take into account functional and non- functional requirements.

Criticisms

Many people describe a nice-to -have - request ( COULD ) as an extension or refinement and advocate that this therefore is by definition no longer a requirement and not more than one such should be classified.

This is countered by the following points:

Swell

  • RFC2119 - Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels
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