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I am not talking about the city. I'm talking about a powerful simple technique to analyze and describe projects to team members and developers.

Must have
Should have
Could have
Won't have (at least now)

I was talking to someone today about a project and I asked him to give me the MoSCoW rundown. This method isn't perfect and it doesn't do a good job at handling priorities, but it is excellent for doing a quick overview of a project.

Must have

Any project you are working on, you decide what must be in the project, these are critical constraints that absolutely cannot be broken. These are your business rules that are not flexible.

Should have

You then want to find out what your project should have. These are things you would like to have, usually important features but might not make it into the initial release. These are important features that are secondary to the business rules. Most of these features make it into the initial release during the beta phase but are prioritized below your must haves business rules.

Could have

Could have features are nice perks and polish that makes for a better product or just user experience. Some of these features will make it into the initial release, some of them are too complex and will require a lot of planning but should be aware of while building the initial foundation for your project.

Won't have

Won't have are features that may or may not be important but will not make it into the initial phases of the project due to complexity, cost, or difficulty. They can still be highly important features but are not practical at this point in time. These are typically "not worth the effort" type of features.

It isn't a perfect system and there are other methods that work better, like a full project description. This technique is very powerful to do in parallel to more detailed analysis and can quickly accelerate project planning.

Open Mind Thinking

_{(Brainstorming, Creativity, Innovation)}
MoSCoW planning is an open mind exercise like brainstorming. Brainstorming and MoSCoW focus on the open state of your brain where your brain is receptive to new ideas and less focused on details. This phase is where creativity and innovation are at their peak. The best way to function in this state is to think of ideas quickly and get them out of your mind just as fast. Write them down immediately, do not spend even a second rationalizing how doable or practical it is. You just want to receive as many ideas as possible but not analyze or rationalize them.

Closed Mind Thinking

_{(Hyper Focused Tunnel Vision, Problem Solving, Productivity)}
Once you go into a closed mind state you develop tunnel vision (think gaming), you are hyper-focused and less receptive to outside influences or ideas. This state is ideal for problem-solving but not outside of the box thinking. When you start thinking about how you are going to do something or even if it is practical, you are much less in a position to come up with unique ideas or innovate through a problem. This phase is critical but does not work well during activities that require open mind thinking like brainstorming and unique solutions to a problem.

I don't want to talk too much about open/closed thinking as I want to save that for brainstorming and mind mapping related posts. But it is an important concept to be aware of when planning a project or even solving a problem. Controlling and being aware of your state of mind is a very powerful technique.

Why you should vote me as witness

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The MOSCOW method of project planning