MoSCoW Prioritization
Must, Should, Could, Won't for feature prioritization.
PURPOSE
When planning releases or projects, it is crucial to distinguish between essential and optional requirements. MoSCoW Prioritization creates clarity about what is truly necessary and what could be dropped. It helps teams and stakeholders focus on what matters most and avoid scope creep.
HOW TO USE
All requirements or features are categorized into four groups: Must have (essential), Should have (important but not critical), Could have (desirable), and Won't have (consciously excluded). The categorization is ideally done together with stakeholders and the development team. Approximately 60% of capacity should be reserved for Must-haves.
WHAT IT IS
MoSCoW Prioritization is a prioritization framework from the DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) environment. The acronym stands for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have, where the Os are only for readability. It is one of the most widely used prioritization frameworks in agile project management and product development.
EXAMPLE
Example: Your stakeholder wants 20 features for the next release, but your team can realistically deliver only 8. With MoSCoW Prioritization, you categorize the features into Must-have (login, payment), Should-have (search filters), Could-have (wishlist), and Won't-have (social sharing). Now it's transparent what's included and what's not.