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(Professional Business Analyst Training organisation)Prioritizing Requirements

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Prioritization plays a key role in our daily lives since we have a number of tasks to be performed in the various roles we play. Likewise as a business analyst we should be able to prioritize the requirements we gather from the client. There are various techniques to do so such as MoSCoW Analysis, Timeboxing or Budgeting, Voting, Decision Analysis and Risk Analysis.

We will be looking at the first three in detail.Let us take a look at the MoSCoW technique. The requirements can be categorized into the following:

Must: These are the most crucial requirementsWithout these the final solution will be incomplete.

Should: These are also crucial requirements but there could be workarounds to satisfy these.

Could: These are desirable or "nice to have" requirements. If time permits these will be included in the final solution.

Would/Won't: These will be included in the next release or will be omitted completely.

Traditional BA (Waterfall)Agile BARequirements are documented in Use Cases,BusinessRequirements, Functional requirements, UI Specifications, Business Rules.Requirements are documented in Epics, User Stories and optionallyBusiness(or Essential) Use cases.Focuses on completeness of requirement and spends time in ensuring the requirement is unambiguous and has all the details.Focuses on understanding the problem and being the domain expert so that s/he can answer questions from the development team swiftly and decisively.Focuses on getting a sign off on the requirements.Focuses on ensuring the requirements meet the currentbusinessneeds, even if it requires updating them.Often there is a wall between theBA/Businessand the Development team.AgileBA(Often called as Product Owner) is part of the team.Tends to dictate solutions.Has to remain in the problem domain, leaving the development team space to explore different solutions.Long turnaround.Quick turnaround.Focus on what the requirements document said. In other words, output (Artifact) is a well written thorough requirements document.Focus on the functionality of the developed software. In other words, output (Artifact) is the software that meets thebusinessneeds.

This technique is most effective when a group of stakeholders are involved in the discussion.

The requirements priority list would keep evolving when the group keeps discussing and applying this technique iteratively.

Next technique is Timeboxing which is also known as budgeting.There are three approaches in this.

All in: The group assigns a duration of time or cost to implement each requirement. We start with all requirements in the box and remove one-by-one based on the deadlines and budget.

2) All out: The group assigns the duration of time or cost to implement each requirement. All requirements are out of the box and we add these one-by-one until the cost/time limit is reached. 3) Selective: This is a balanced approach. Here we identify the high priority requirements and then add/remove those one-by-one to meet the scheduled time/budget limits.

Another technique is voting. In this a set requirements are distributed to a group of stakeholders and each of them gives a vote to prioritize the distributed requirements.

We can conclude by stating that one of the key skills a good business analyst should have is prioritization of tasks as it would help in minimizing overheads and maximizing the resource utilization.

MustShouldCouldWould/Won't Communication Problem solving ability Probing Active listening Documentation Think like an end user Domain knowledge Analytical skills Presentation Planning Persuasion Collaborative Critical thinking Handle ambiguity Leadership Negotiation Flexibility Adaptability Open to learning Breadth of experience Culture awareness Customer service Escalation management Influencing

Below is the MoSCoW analysis for skills of a business analyst.MustShouldCouldWould/Won't Communication Problem solving ability Probing Active listening Documentation Think like an end user Domain knowledge Analytical skills Presentation Planning Persuasion Collaborative Critical thinking Handle ambiguity Leadership Negotiation Flexibility Adaptability Open to learning Breadth of experience Culture awareness Customer service Escalation management Influencing