MoSCoW Method

When managing a project it is important to establish a clear understanding of the customers' requirements and their priority. Many projects start with the barest headline list of requirements, only to find later that the customers' needs have not been properly understood.

Once there is a clear set of requirements it is important to ensure they are prioritised. This helps everyone (customer, project manager, designer, developers etc.) understand which the most important requirements are, in what order to develop them and which won't be delivered if there is pressure on resources.

So what is the best method for creating a prioritised list of requirements?

The MoSCoW prioritisation method can help. MoSCoW stands for must, should, could and would:

M - Must have this requirement to meet the business needs.

S - Should have this requirement if at all possible, but project success does not rely on it.

C - Could have this if it does not adversely affect anything else in the project.

W - Would have this requirement at a later date, but it won't be delivered this time.

The o's in MoSCoW are added to make the acronym pronounceable, and are often left in lowercase to indicate they don't stand for anything.

MoSCoW as a prioritisation method is used to determine which requirements must be implemented first and which must come later or will not be implemented at all.

Unlike a numbering system for prioritisation, the words mean something and make it easier to discuss what's important. The must requirements need to provide a complete coherent solution and alone lead to project success.

The must requirements are non-negotiable and have to be delivered. Failure to deliver even one of the must requirements means the project has failed.

The project team should aim to deliver as many should requirements as possible. Could and would requirements are "nice to haves" and do not affect the overall success of the project. Could requirements are the first to go if the project timeline or budget comes under pressure.

To deliver a successful project, it is essential that a clear set of prioritised requirements are agreed with the customer along with the overall objective, quality, timescale and budget. The recommended method for prioritising requirements is MoSCoW.

MoSCoW was developed by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994 and has been made popular by exponents of the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM).