MoSCoW prioritisation tool

MoSCoW stands for ‘must-have, should-have, could-have, won’t-have’. It is a method for prioritising things like tasks, features and functions, when you don’t have enough time or money to do everything you’d like.

You can do it on your own, or in a group, to get more than one person’s perspective on what their priorities are.

To do a MoSCoW prioritisation exercise:

• Write out everything you might possibly want to do. This can be in a list in a spreadsheet, on a digital whiteboard like Mural or Miro, using card-sorting software like Optimal Sort, or in person with good old-fashioned paper sticky notes.
• Put each item into one of four buckets: must, should, could, won’t.
• Set aside everything in ‘won’t’. They’re off the list (for now).
• Check you have the resources to deliver everything in ‘must’. If there are too many things in ‘must’ for you to deliver them all with the time, money and skills you have available, then you’ll have to deprioritise some of them.
• The things in ‘should’ and ‘could’ stay on the list, but only get done if you’ve finished all the ‘must’ and have time and money left over.

It is important to define what ‘must, should, could and won’t’ mean before you start. This will help you make consistent and coherent choices, and make sure everyone taking part is making decisions on the same basis.

You should keep your end users (like staff, students, customers) in mind and consider what is important to them. But MoSCoW is about deciding what you can and are going to do with the time, knowledge and skills you have. Something could be very important to your users, but if you simply cannot give it to them for whatever reason, then it has to go in the ‘won’t’ bucket. But don’t worry, ‘can’t’ really means ‘can’t right now’. It doesn’t mean you can never do it.

Things to consider when you are defining what the buckets mean for your exercise:

• Will your product or service simply not work or do its core job if you don’t do this? Then it’s a ‘must’.
• Is this out of scope, or impossible to do with the time, money and skills you have? Then it’s a ‘won’t’.
• ‘Should’ means ‘it would be great and help a lot of people if we did this, but our product or service will still work if we don’t’.
• ‘Could’ means ‘it will be fine if we don’t do this, but it would be nice to have for at least some of people some of the time’.
• You don’t have to cater for everybody’s every need. But you mustn’t put things to do with accessibility and inclusion in low-priority buckets. Whatever you create, it has to be accessible to everyone who needs to use it. Accessibility is not optional.