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MoSCoW Prioritization

Understand the relative importance of your items by categorizing each according to ‘must haves’, ‘should haves’, ‘could haves’ and ‘will not have right nows’.

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MoSCoW prioritization board showing items grouped into Must, Should, Could, and Won’t categories for product planning.
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Assign % of resource per category

Quantify different levels of priority

Achieve cross team buy-in

Gain alignment on priorities

The MoSCoW prioritization method is a product prioritization framework that helps teams organize tasks or features based on their importance. By using this simple framework, product teams can focus on delivering the most critical items first while managing resources and expectations more effectively.

How to prioritize effectively with the MoSCoW Method

Sort your items into four categories: must haves, should haves, could haves, and won’t haves for now. Must haves are essential for launching the product, while should haves add significant value but are not critical. Could haves are nice-to-have features with lower impact, and won’t haves for now can be postponed without weakening the product. Start by completing all must haves first, then move to should haves and could haves if resources allow. If time or capacity runs short, focus only on the essentials to ensure a strong release.

How Craft.io makes MoSCoW Prioritization effortless

Craft.io is designed to make prioritization intuitive and collaborative, so your team can focus on building great products, not prioritization tools. Craft.io simplifies the MoSCoW method by making prioritization visual, collaborative, and data-driven. Teams can easily drag and drop items into Must, Should, Could, and Won’t categories, customize workflows to fit their strategy, and connect priorities directly to the product roadmap. Real-time collaboration and built-in analytics ensure every decision is informed, aligned, and focused on delivering real value.

FAQ

Why should I use MoSCoW Prioritization?

Use MoSCoW prioritization when the deadline is fixed and there’s only time to develop the more important requirements. The plain English of the MoSCoW phrasing is more effective at helping stakeholders understand the impact of prioritization than more simpler options like High, Medium and Low.

How should I use MoSCoW Prioritization?

Divvy up all of your prospective items into 4 categories — ‘must haves’, ‘should haves’, ‘could haves’ and ‘wont have right nows’. Those items considered critical or essential to the products’ success are ‘must haves’ These are the first items that should be prioritized. Items that aren’t essential but can strongly impact the product are should haves’, and are next in line to be developed. ‘Could haves’ are less important than ‘should haves’, but are still important, while ‘won’t have right nows’ are items that can be pushed off for the time being.

Who are the relevant stakeholders for this view?

MoSCoW prioritization method is often used to help key stakeholders like customers, executives and other leaders, understand the relative importance of items in a given release.

What outcomes should I expect when using this view?

Get a clear understanding of the relative importance of each of your items. Offer your team greater clarity regarding where they should invest their efforts so that they can ignore those items that aren’t prioritized.

What’s the origin of MoSCoW Prioritization

Dai Clegg — a software development expert — created MoSCoW prioritization method while working at Oracle, after which it was donated to the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DDSM). It was originally conceived as a prioritization methodology for initiatives within releases with strict deadlines
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