According to the BABOK® v3 guide, the purpose of the task Prioritize Requirements is to do the following:
"… rank requirements in the order of relative importance."
Let's look at a practical example to understand this task further:
A company has decided that they require a new website, and the following high-level requirements have been documented:
- The technical director wants the website to be fast and responsive.
- The sales director requires the website to increase the number of new customers visiting the website.
- The creative director says the website must be aesthetically pleasing with lots of images as they have a big portfolio to display.
- The technical website design company requires the website to be mobile-friendly.
However, when enquiring about the priorities of these requirements, you find that each stakeholder has their own opinion of the relative importance of each. It is your role as the business analyst to facilitate a session with all the stakeholders involved to prioritize the requirements according to an agreed prioritization method.
Let's consider the detail of the prioritization activities.