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Agile is an iterative method of Project Management and software development that enables teams to provide value to stakeholders more quickly and with less difficulty. An Agile team provides work in modest, yet consumable, increments rather than putting all on a "big bang" launch. Continuous evaluation of needs, plans, and results provide teams with a mechanistic explanation for adjusting rapidly to change. This makes the Agile prioritization techniques really important.

Prioritization is a key idea in Agile approaches. Prioritization in linguistic terms refers to the choice to arrange things in descending order of priority. Prioritization in Agile refers to the act of determining the order in which an Agile team will work on the needs of a project/product. Understanding prioritization is key for all projects, but it is especially important in Agile since an Agile project is time-boxed with a defined set of resources that require prioritizing to satisfy time and budget restrictions. The subsequent prioritizing process assists the Agile team in considering the bare minimum functionalities required to produce client value. It is critical to understand the aspects that a Product Owner must examine before setting priorities in order to conduct Agile prioritization. 

According to the Pareto principle, about 80% of the consequences result from 20% of the causes. If we implement it in our operations, then 20% of the needs or backlog generates 80% of the value. People frequently prioritize based on their gut instinct, or because "the CEO said so," or because "everything is a high priority." What's the problem with this? If our priorities are incorrect, we may incur significant opportunity costs because we are wasting time on activities that do not provide value.

The prioritization problem

Prioritization of requirements is an important aspect of all software development approaches, but it is especially important in Agile software development. When we talk about some of the Product Owner's activities in Scrum products, such as "Ordering items in the Product Backlog to best achieve mission and objectives", "Demonstrate what the Scrum Team would work on next", and "Streamlining the quality of the work the Developers performs", we are actually talking about workload prioritization. All we're attempting to do is prioritize the issues in the backlog. In essence, we are attempting to discover the user's priority tasks and rank them accordingly, while also taking into account certain additional characteristics. For example, we may utilize five priority factors to rank user stories, such as the importance users place on product vision, urgency, time restrictions, technical difficulty, and stakeholder interests. Projects must be correctly prioritized for both the overall project objectives and the individual activities that will fulfill the objectives in order to be successful. As a result, we address the prioritizing issue on two levels:

Product level: Evaluate which elements of the product might contribute more to the project's major aims.

Tasks level: Specify which work items must be completed and in what sequence during the software product development cycle.

But how can you solve the prioritizing problem? We need to figure out how to prioritize such that the most critical 'things' get done first. Isn't it simple? There are several Agile prioritizing techniques available, and the list below is far from exhaustive. Let's look at several Agile prioritization methods with a focus on value.

MoSCoW Agile Prioritization Techniques

MoSCoW analysis is a business analyst prioritizing approach advocated in the IIBA BABOK and derived from the DSDM (dynamic software development method). According to this strategy, a collection of needs or user stories should be divided into four categories:

M: Must. Describes a criterion that must be met in the final solution for it to be judged successful.

S: Should. Represents a high-priority component that, if feasible, should be included in the solution. This is frequently a vital criterion, but it can be met in other ways if absolutely required.

C: Could. Describes a criterion that is desirable but not required. If time and resources allow, this will be added.

W: Will not. Represents a demand that stakeholders have decided will not be executed in a particular release but will be addressed in the future.

After categorizing the needs into four groups, they are rated in order of priority within each category.

Kano Agile Prioritisation Methods

Professor Noriaki Kano popularised the Kano Prioritization Model. These Agile prioritizing techniques include three stages of consumer satisfaction, ranging from disappointment to not pleased to instant happiness to joy. The presence of features and the degree of execution are two major elements that influence the level of satisfaction throughout this prioritizing. Along with full execution, the degree of satisfaction is attained. Some aspects result in a basic degree of satisfaction, while others result in a higher level of satisfaction - the higher the level of execution, the higher the level of pleasure.

Relative Weighting Agile Prioritization Technique

In Agile software development, the weighted-shortest-job-first (WSJF) approach is used to prioritize tasks based on the economics of Lean product development. This is accomplished by dividing the Cost of Delay by the amount of time required to execute the jobs. For example, if a planned feature is worth $150k each month, a three-month delay would result in a $450K cost of delay.

If the outcomes of relative weighted prioritization are in numerical value, it is simpler for the Product Owner to make a faster prioritizing choice. A Product Owner does the prioritizing exercise using all three strategies in order to achieve customer satisfaction and customer value. The whole prioritizing process is followed in Agile in order to produce customer value, which is achieved through creativity, focused implementation, and efficient delivery.

There are several quantitative approaches to this, but another is to consider what a corporation may lose if something is not attended to or done. The work that, if not completed, would result in the greatest severe loss – this might be financial and reputational damage, loss of customers, failure to upsell a related product, or a bottleneck such as a task that delays many releases. Of course, there will always be some subjectiveness, but probably less than when determining which work is most essential to whom.

Priority Poker

Priority poker is a simple design game for ranking objects in order of importance. Priority poker is named from the fact that it is quite similar to arranging poker (a technique for evaluating the costs of the user stories widely used in Agile development projects).

Before the game begins, the moderator collects all of the individuals who need to be engaged in the prioritizing process, such as stakeholders, product managers, strategists, programmers, domain experts, and sometimes even consumers. The moderator must also prepare a list of tasks to prioritize as well as a collection of priority cards to distribute to each player. The volume of cards in this set is determined by how many degrees of priority are useful in this specific instance. In certain circumstances, a 5 point scale (e.g., very high priority, high priority, medium priority, low priority, very low priority), a 3 point scale (e.g., high urgency, medium urgency, low urgency), or even a 10 point scale may be used. The number of cards matches to the scale's numbers.

The supervisor then reviews a piece of functionality (user story). Each participant selects the card that they believe represents the best ranking for that assignment and sets it face down on the table. After each player has made their selection, all of the cards are turned over at the same time. The disparities are addressed, and the game continues until the estimations are roughly equal.

The 100-Dollar Test (Cumulative Voting)

Cumulative Voting, sometimes known popularly as the 100 Dollar Test, is one of the most basic and uncomplicated, yet very successful Agile prioritizing techniques. It's a lot like priority poker. The main distinction is that stakeholders are allocated a certain number of points to utilize in voting. Making sure that each and every stakeholder is addressed will result in a fair and equal evaluation process that is focused on the product's best interests. This is especially significant since Agile product development involves several teams working together on the project.

Cost of Delay

This Agile prioritization technique is a concept that assists you in determining the amount of money you risk losing if certain features are unavailable. Essentially, you are putting yourself in the path of those who are combating fires. As a result, it is a proactive struggle to guarantee that there are no money-bleeding situations.

You may estimate how urgent they are by calculating how much money the organization would lose every day if the feature or job is delayed. As a consequence, you will have a well-planned timetable that will contribute to total budget savings. As a result, this prioritizing strategy is motivated only by financial considerations and has nothing to do with user experience or customer happiness.

Although these factors may be considered when calculating the Cost of Delay, they are not the primary goal of these Agile prioritization methods. The benefits of employing this priority technique in conjunction with others would be both financially and emotionally justifiable.

Conclusion:

These Agile prioritization methods are critical components of project planning and management. You may wind up losing a lot of money on the project if you don't have appropriate Agile prioritization techniques in place. Furthermore, the initiative may have little influence on the intended clients. As a result, it is critical to employ an objective prioritizing grading system that adds to the success of an Agile product development project.

References:

1. https://intetics.com/blog/3-powerful-prioritization-techniques-to-transform-agile-or-any-product-development-process/
2. https://netmind.net/en/7-prioritization-techniques-stakeholder-voting-template/
3. https://storiesonboard.com/blog/the-7-best-prioritization-models-in-agile-product-development