MoSCoW Prioritisation: Step-by-Step Framework

Too many conflicting requirements, and all of them with high relative importance? Unsure where to start?

If you answered “yes,” the Moscow Prioritization Method is what you need. I’ll teach you all about this prioritization method, which is my favorite way of prioritizing tasks.

TL;DR – Key takeaways

• MoSCoW helps you categorize tasks into Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have;
• With MoSCoW, you learn to allocate 60% of resources to must-haves, 20% to should-haves, 20% to could haves, and 0% to won’t’s haves.
• You can implement MoSCoW in 3 steps: List all requirements, apply MoSCoW criteria with all stakeholders involved, and follow the 60-20-20 resource allocation rule;
• A simple test to understand if a task is a must-have, run it through the question: “If we launched without this, would we fail?” If not an immediate yes, it’s probably not a must-have.
• The key benefits of MoSCoW are that it forces clear decisions, prevents scope creep, and brings team consensus;
• Pro tip: Start with time tracking tools to understand the actual time spent on each category, and then you can add more tools as needed.

What is the MoSCow prioritization method?

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization framework that helps you categorize your tasks and requirements into four groups: Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have. It’s particularly powerful because it eliminates the ambiguity of “high, medium, low” priority systems and forces you to make solid decisions about what really matters.

The best part? You stop wasting energy on low-impact work and focus your resources where they’ll make the biggest difference.

What is the history of the MoSCoW method?

Developed by Dai Clegg in 1994, the MoSCoW prioritization method was created as a part of projects in the DSDM agile project management method. The DSDM is the acronym for Dynamic Systems Development Method, originally created for software development teams. Its simplicity has since made it a favorite among software developers, project managers, and other teams.

As a writer, I discovered this technique while trying to juggle writing deadlines, personal projects, and client edits. Adopting it helped me make a difference between urgent, client-critical work and nice-to-have parts of the process that were unnecessary for delivering the work.

The MoSCoW categories

Before diving into how to implement this project management technique, let’s first understand its prioritization categories:

• Must have: These are non-negotiable requirements. Without these, your project or solution is simply not viable. Think of them as the Minimum Usable SubseT features(MUST) of your new product or the strategy upon which you’re marketing your business in the next quarter – you can’t skip them.
• Should have: Important but not vital features or tasks. These add significant value but aren’t critical for launch. For instance, in time tracking software, it’s vital for managers to have features like team productivity analytics and customizable reports to understand work patterns, but the basic time logging function can still serve its purpose without them.
• Could have: Nice-to-have features that only have a small impact on the overall solution. These are your “wish list” items. Think of a custom dashboard theme in your project management tool or advanced filter options in your analytics platform. They enhance the experience but aren’t essential for your primary business objectives.
• Won’t have: Items that aren’t a priority for the current timeframe but might be revisited later. For example, in a mobile app launch, features like social media integration or dark mode might be considered future possibilities but are clearly communicated as out of scope for the initial release.

💡 Pro tip: When identifying must-haves, use the “If we launched without this, would we fail?” test. If the answer isn’t an immediate “yes,” it’s probably not a must-have. This pairs perfectly with the 4 Ds of time management method “Do” category for clarity.

Why should you use the MoSCoW prioritization method? 

Besides your struggle with knowing what to prioritize in your entire project, making a MoSCow analysis could have multiple other benefits. Here are some reasons why you can persuade anyone in your team, be it product managers or the project management team prioritize tasks with this agile project management technique:

• It forces clear decisions: Unlike vague priority levels and endless brainstorming sessions, MoSCoW requires a definitive categorization. This way, you bring clarity as you can’t mark everything as “high priority” but must choose what truly impacts your projects.
• It brings consensus in teams: Having clear and agreed categories makes it easier for you to explain and justify prioritization decisions to team members, clients, and relevant stakeholders.
• It prevents scope creep: By explicitly defining what’s in and out of scope (Won’t-have), you protect your project from endless feature additions and requirement changes. It’s much easier to manage expectations.

How to implement MoSCoW in your workflow

This agile project delivery framework takes only three steps to implement, but it brings many benefits and business value. Let’s check out all the steps of the MoSCow technique:

1. First, gather all project requirements. List all potential requirements, features, or tasks without filtering. Include everything stakeholders have requested or your team has identified. Don’t worry about prioritization yet. Just create a comprehensive inventory, so focus solely on jotting everything down.
2. Apply the MoSCoW priorities. Now evaluate each item on your list using the MoSCow priorities based on the criteria in the below table. However, note that it’s important to initiate discussions with all key stakeholders and decide together the priority of the requirements. Try to initiate debates in cross-functional teams and include as many professions as possible in the group. Bring the business analyst, as well as members from project teams and the product team.

💡 Pro tip: Do you know why quick decision-making is critical for your performance and business? It’s best to understand it before setting priorities- it might speed up your entire process. 😉

💡 Pro tip: Combine MoSCoW with time-blocking by allocating specific time slots for your must-haves first. This way, your most critical tasks get your peak energy hours. In other words, eat the frog as early as possible.

3. Apply the 60-20-20 MoSCoW rule. Now, the MoSCoW prioritisation teaches you to distribute your effort between requirements. Therefore reviewing priorities works based on a simple rule of thumb:

• Must-haves: take ~60% of the available resources
• Should-haves: take ~20% of the available resources
• Could-haves: take ~20% of the available resources
• Won’t-haves: 0% (documented for future consideration)

Example of MoSCoW prioritization 

In order to exemplify how requirements with the MoSCow prioritization technique, I’ll take a concrete and simple example: A website launch project through the MoSCoW prioritisation lens:

Must-haves:

• Homepage with a clear value proposition: Pivotal in first impressions and conveying your core business offer.
• Mobile responsiveness: With over 60% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, according to Soax, a non-responsive site would immediately lose most potential customers.
• Contact form: As it is the primary way potential customers can reach you directly, it impacts lead generation and customer support and needs to be done.
• Basic SEO elements (meta titles, descriptions, proper heading structure): Critical for search engines’ visibility and organic traffic from day one.
• Core product/service pages: Essential information about what you’re selling. Without these, you have no way to convert visitors.

Should-haves:

• Blog section: Important for SEO and establishing authority, but can be added after launch without disrupting the site’s core functionality.
• Customer testimonials: It builds trust and credibility, but the site can function without them initially while you gather more reviews.
• Newsletter signup: Valuable for lead nurturing and inbound sales but not critical for the main website functionality.
• Social media integration: Enhances brand presence and sharing capabilities but isn’t essential for core business functions.
• Site search functionality: Improves user experience for larger sites but isn’t critical for initial launch, especially with good navigation.

💡 Pro tip: Try to stay away from multitasking and stick to mus and should haves, as multitasking is one of the main reasons why people feel unproductive and one of the biggest time wasters at work.

Could-haves:

• Live chat feature: Nice for instant customer support, but an email/contact form can be enough for a start.
• Interactive product demos: This would enhance product understanding, but static images/videos can work for launch.
• Advanced analytics (beyond basic Google Analytics): Useful for deep insights, but basic tracking is good enough to start.
• Multi-language support: This could expand market reach but can wait until you have considerable international traffic.
• Video backgrounds: This would add visual appeal but won’t impact core functionality.

Won’t-have (this time):

• AI-powered chatbot: Expensive to implement properly and requires training data you don’t have yet.
• Virtual reality tours: Cool feature but requires significant resources and isn’t essential for most users.
• User community forum: Requires moderation resources and an active user base you don’t have at launch.
• Integration with legacy systems: This can be addressed later when you have more user data and specific requirements.
• Custom mobile app: The website’s responsive design will be enough for a start. App development can wait for proven demand.

Tools to master MoSCoW prioritization

In order to implement MoSCoW effectively, you need either one tool or the right set of tools to track, monitor, and adjust your priorities. Here are some tools that can help:

• Timeular: Track time spent on tasks in each MoSCoW category to understand objectively how long each category actually takes. By tracking time spent on must-haves versus could-haves, you’ll make better prioritization decisions and identify where you misallocate resources. The automatic time-tracking feature helps you collect reliable data about task durations, so you can make better-informed decisions in your future release.

Stop guessing how long your Must-haves really take.

Let Timeular automatically track your time while you focus on what matters.

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• Notion: Build a centralized hub for your MoSCoW framework in which you can combine documentation, tracking, and other collaboration features. You can view your priorities in multiple ways in Notion, as it has a flexible database, from Kanban boards to lists or tables. Note that time tracking in Notion is cumbersome.
• Trello or Jira: Use boards with MoSCoW-labeled columns to visualize and manage your prioritized items. These tools allow you to easily drag and drop items between categories as priorities shift.
• Miro or Mural: Perfect for collaborative MoSCoW sessions with stakeholders, these visual collaboration tools help teams prioritize together using virtual sticky notes and voting features.
• Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets: Create detailed priority matrices with built-in formulas to score and weight different requirements. These tools are especially useful for keeping a comprehensive backlog of all items across categories.

💡 Pro tip: While tools are important, don’t let tool selection become a could-have that delays your must-have prioritization work. Start with project time tracking, then add more sophisticated tools if needed.

Common challenges to MoSCoW

Though simple and effective, the MoSCow prioritization method may come up with drawbacks unless it’s implemented and controlled correctly:

• You have too many Must-haves: You might often be fought up in a scenario where stakeholders insist everything is critical. In reality, with MoSCow, you can prove that you don’t have that many options within the stretched timeframe and limited resources at hand. Solution: Use the “If this was the only thing we delivered, would the project still work?” test for each must-have item.
• Unclear priorities within categories: Your struggle is ranking items within the same category. Solution: Add sub-priorities (M1, M2, M3) within each category for finer granularity.
• Shifting requirements: Your priorities are changing mid-project. Solution: Schedule regular priority reviews and keep a change log to track and justify changes.

Your MoSCoW journey starts now

In essence, MoSCoW allows you to better organize your workload and priorities. What makes it different from all other prioritization methods is its simplicity and effectiveness.

Choose one project, apply the framework, and start tracking your priorities. Remember that aiming for perfection won’t move your work forward. Ready to transform how you prioritize? Your MoSCoW journey starts now!

FAQS

Sources

https://soax.com/research/mobile-website-traffic

https://pmworldjournal.com/article/moscow-rules

https://publications.eai.eu/index.php/IoT/article/view/6515