MoSCoW prioritisation

A form of prioritisation that classifies objectives as: ‘must have’, ‘should have’, ‘could have’ and ‘would like to have’. Some sources suggest the ‘W’ stands for ‘Won’t have’.

This approach is closely associated with the timebox approach to scheduling in agile project management. Within each timebox (or sprint) the objectives are prioritised so that:

  • ‘must have’ requirements are fundamental to the system being developed and without them it won’t work;

  • ‘should have’ requirements are important but if they are not completed there is an alternative;

  • ‘could have’ requirements are not essential in the current timebox and can be left until the next one;

  • ‘would like to have’ are requirements that have value if they can be done in this timebox but it expected that they won’t be done until later.

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22nd July 2014Italian translation added
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