MoSCoW (Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won't Have) is a prioritization method developed by Dai Clegg in 1994 for use in rapid application development (RAD). It was first widely used with the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) in 2002. MoSCoW prioritizes requirements with four categories: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won't Have.
Must Have: Requirements must be implemented. If they are not effective portugal mobile numbers list implemented, the features will not be usable and the delivery will be considered a failure. MUST is also considered an acronym for Minimum Usable Subset.
Should Have: Requirements are not as critical as "Must Haves" but they must be implemented. Although features can be used without requirements, they are usually implemented to meet customer satisfaction.
Could have: Requirements improve UI/UX, leading to better customer satisfaction. They are usually implemented when time and cost permit.
Will not have: Requirements are not necessary at this time and may be considered later.
Example of User Story and MoSCoW
We will see how to use acceptance criteria and MoSCoW together with an example. For simplicity, I will use the following login image.
Sample login form
Write down all the Acceptance Criteria you can think of. I'll use the following four scenarios as an example.
After writing the Acceptance Criteria (User Stories), categorize each scenario into MoSCoW categories like the one below. Then, decide how far you are willing to develop, it would be best to focus on Must have to define a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) . In the example below, “Must have” and “Should have” are in scope, and “Could have” and “Won’t have” are out of scope and will be developed in different User Stories.
Conclusion
Effective scope management in user stories is critical to the success of software development projects. Utilizing methods such as acceptance criteria and the MoSCoW methodology not only facilitates clarity in requirements, but also enables efficient prioritization, ensuring that essential items are addressed first. This is crucial in an Agile environment, where time and resources are limited, and scope must be flexible to accommodate rapid changes. Proper implementation of these approaches fosters better estimation, planning, and ultimately delivery of high-quality products.