4 | Requirements Prioritization Strategies
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Figure 3: Group Estimation Process
Strategy: Objective Alignment
Objective alignment is a scope delineation strategy in which each discovered requirement is aligned
with a business requirement or business objective (business goal).
Start the process by defining the business objectives (business requirements) for the project. Then, for
each identified lower-level requirement, determine if its implementation is necessary to achieve one of
the business objectives. If yes, include the requirement in the project scope, otherwise omit it.
For example, on a warehouse management and inventory control system project the business
objective is to reduce order returns by increasing order accuracy. During elicitation the following
user requirement has been identified: allow order handlers to print out a pick list; in addition, during
elaboration of the requirements the following functional requirement were discovered: mark any
backordered items in bold. These requirements will be in scope only if they are both necessary to
achieve the business objective of increasing order accuracy. If there are no manual work arounds, then
these user and functional requirements are necessary and therefore should be in scope as they directly
support the business objective.
Strategy: Five Whys
Five Whys is a scope delineation strategy. For each identified requirement, the analyst asks the
stakeholder at least five times why the requirement is necessary. This tends to surface requirements that
are "personal" rather than traceable to a business need. Of course, most likely you will uncover whether
the requirement is truly needed after just a few "whys."
For example, a stakeholder states that he needs the system to provide a button on the main screen to
send an invoice. You should ask, "Why do you need that button?" He'll likely say, "So that I can send an
invoice." You'd respond with, "Why do you need to send invoices?" and so forth.
Strategy: Pain Ranking
Pain ranking is a scope delineation strategy. This technique starts with a brainstorming session (more
often a "gripe" session) in which stakeholders express what they dislike about an existing system or
some process. For example, they might say that the system is too slow and that they can't print out
customer statements in reverse order.
