The basis on which requirements are prioritised is agreed upon by relevant stakeholders as defined in the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area ¹

Below are different approaches to prioritisation; we may use many on each project.

Business Value (Benefit)

How valuable will this requirement be to the business

The value the requirement offers to the solution and the stakeholder. Often Business Analysts will prioritise higher-value requirements above lesser-value requirements. 

Business or technical risk (Penalty)

prioritise the requirements which pose the most significant risk to failure

The cost of not implementing a requirement. 

Implementation Difficulty (Cost)

Prioritise the requirements which are the easiest to implement

The effort and resources needed to implement the requirement. Often used with benefit to determine the cost benefit. 

Likelihood of Success (Risk of Failure)

Prioritise the requirements which are most likely to lead to certain success

the chance that the requirement is not about to be delivered or the chance that the requirement will not deliver the intended value. High-risk requirements can either be prioritised higher to reduce uncertainty.

Regulatory Compliance

Prioritise the requirements which need to be implemented for the solution to meet regulatory compliance

We give a higher prioritisation to regulatory or policy compliance requirements. 

Relationship to other requirements (Dependencies)

Prioritise requirements that enable or are dependent on other higher-value requirements 

We prioritise requirements with high dependencies higher as they allow the concurrent development of other requirements. 

Stakeholder Agreement (Stability)

Prioritise the requirements the stakeholders think should be prioritised

If there is no consensus on a requirement or the specifics of that requirement are likely to change significantly, business analysts may deprioritise that requirement. 

Urgency (Time Sensitivity)

Prioritise based on time sensitivity

The “best before” date of a requirement