MoSCoW, Effective Project Management
Undertaking a rebrand, new website, advertising campaign or brochure within any large orgnaisations can sometimes be a difficult exercise as staff conflict internally regarding the priorities of the project.
Liven has extensive experience undertaking successful projects for Global enterprises and uses as part of our structured approach, an Agile methodology called MoSCow to prioritise what are the key deliverables for a project.
MoSCoW stands for:
- Must have
- Should have
- Could have
- Won’t have
Must Haves: are mandatory deliverables that must be included as part of the project. It is good to have clarity on this before a project begins, as this is the minimum scope for the project.
Should Haves: are extras that are not critical to launch, but are still considered to be important.
Could Haves: are features that are nice to have and could potentially be included without incurring too much effort or cost. However, these will be the first features to be removed from scope if the project’s timescales are later at risk.
Won’t Haves are features that have been requested but are explicitly excluded from scope for the planned duration, and may be included in a future phase of development depending on budget and timescales.
It’s a good idea to make sure a project has a healthy number of Should Have and Could Have requirements. This way you provide the project with some flexibility if things start taking longer than expected, effectively providing the project with some contingency.
If a project only has ‘Must Haves’, the scope cannot be varied. Therefore the cost and timescales should not really be fixed without including a reasonable contingency. ‘Could Haves’ can be that contingency. They are effectively stretch tasks; features that will be included if possible, but the launch date will not be moved to accommodate them if there is not enough time to complete them.
Liven creative is a RAR registered design and marketing consultancy based in Surrey. Our structured approach ensures that we delight clients by delivering success. Our services are split into four key areas: Branding, Digital, Print and Media. Today we continue to work with a variety of clients from startups to global enterprises, if you would like to know more then please either call us on 01483 331250 or email: hello@livencreative.com.
