Setting Requirements Priorities

 

Every software development project is bound by some constraints, and more often than not, those constraints include time. In today's competitive market, there is a definite first-mover advantage, and the first company to release its product has by far the best chance of becoming the market leader.

As a result, you must have some tools in your software development process that help you proactively deal with such time constraints. You, as a project manager, must be able to determine ahead of time which features must make it in the product for the customer to accept it, and which can be delivered in the next release. If your development schedule is aggressive, you're inevitably going to cut some features. The question is, are you cutting features that will cost you a sale?

Must-Have versus Nice-To-Have

Customers are not always reasonable when asked to prioritize requirements, and generally speaking, they'll qualify everything as a must-have. They normally do not understand or care about the pressure that comes from the project schedule. They've agreed to pay a price for a solution, and they want that solution to do everything they can imagine.

If you ask customers which features are less important or which features could be delayed until the next release, you'll get the knee-jerk response that they need it all, and they need it now--…

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