User:Stefan van den eijkel/Wiegers Prioritization

The Wiegers prioritization matrix is a method for prioritizing projects or tasks inside an organisation or business. It was developed in the 1990s by Karl Wiegers, an American software development professional, to assist teams in efficiently prioritizing their work by matching it with the organisation's most essential objectives. The strategy defines the most important objectives and then selects which activities will best serve those objectives. By utilising Wieger's prioritization matrix, teams may guarantee that they are concentrating on the most crucial activities and making progress toward their objectives.

Background
Karl Wiegers created the Wieger's prioritizing matrix to assist teams in software development and other sectors in prioritizing their work successfully. According to Wiegers, the traditional method of prioritizing activities based on urgency or available resources was frequently unproductive because it would not account for the organisation's larger aims and objectives. His conception suggests effective prioritizing should be built on matching tasks with the organisation's most important objectives. He believes that by prioritizing tasks in this manner, teams may more effectively utilise their resources and achieve their objectives. The approach was initially proposed in a 1999 article, "First Things First: Prioritizing Requirements", and has since been extensively utilised to prioritize work in software development and other sectors.

Prioritization
An important step in the software development process is requirements prioritization, which involves assessing and ranking the significance of various requirements for a project. The objective is to determine which requirements are necessary for the project's success, which are desirable but not necessarily essential, and which can wait until later. Organising the requirements in this manner makes it possible to concentrate development efforts on the most crucial features first, increasing the likelihood that the finished product will satisfy stakeholders and be delivered on schedule and within budget. A group of stakeholders, including product managers, developers, and end users, typically handles this process. They collaborate to assess the requirements and determine the order of importance. To assist them in prioritizing the requirements, the team may employ techniques such as MoSCoW analysis, Kano analysis, user story mapping or Wieger's prioritization matrix. When determining the priority level of each requirement, they may also take other factors like technical viability, cost, and resource limitations into account. The prioritization process yields generally better overall requirements that are well-understood and well-accepted by the stakeholders, which guides the development process and helps to guarantee that the finished product meets the needs and objectives of the stakeholders. To ensure that the project continues on track and the priorities are kept in line with the changing needs of the stakeholders, this procedure should be checked in periodically during the development cycle.

Prioritization of requirements
One of the primary advantages of Wiegers Prioritization Matrix is that it enables organizations to prioritize tasks and projects based on their strategic importance, as opposed to focusing solely on short-term gains or individual stakeholder preferences. Organizations can choose which tasks and projects to work on first by taking into account their long-term objectives as well as the potential effects that various tasks and projects may have on them.

Due to the possibility of assisting organizations in the early identification and management of potential risks and dependencies. It can help avoid delays and potential issues later on in the project. Organizations can take action to reduce risks and ensure that projects are finished on time and within budget by taking into account potential risks and dependencies associated with various tasks and projects. Due to efficient resource allocation within organizations. Organizations can make sure that the most crucial tasks and projects get the resources they require to be completed successfully by prioritizing tasks and projects based on their strategic importance.

Actors
The project manager, key customer representatives and development representatives such as team technical leads are all key actors in Wiegers prioritization involved in the process. These individuals work together to provide important inputs such as benefit and penalty ratings, cost and risk ratings to evaluate and prioritize tasks and projects in alignment with organisational objectives.

Process
To assist in prioritizing work or projects in a company or organisation, the Wieger's prioritization approach entails eight steps. The first step is creating a spreadsheet with a list of all the requirements, features, or use cases that must be prioritized. Next, rate each feature's relative benefit, penalty, cost, and risk on a scale of 1 to 9. The spreadsheet will then determine the overall cost and risk percentage for each feature. While cost and risk might be changed depending on the project's particular requirements, benefit and penalty are given equal weight. The last step is to sort the list of features in descending order by determined priority, with the highest priority tasks at the top of the list. The spreadsheet will then create a priority number for each feature. The Wieger's prioritization method involves the following 8 steps : Priority formula: (value %) / [(cost% *cost weight) + (risk% * risk weight)
 * 1) 	List all requirements, features, or use cases in a spreadsheet
 * 2) 	Estimate the relative benefit of each feature on a scale of 1 to 9
 * 3) 	Estimate the relative penalty of each feature on a scale of 1 to 9
 * 4) 	Calculate the total value by summing the relative benefit and penalty
 * 5) 	Estimate the relative cost of implementing each feature on a scale of 1 to 9
 * 6) 	Estimate the relative degree of technical or other risk associated with each feature on a scale of 1 to 9
 * 7) 	The spreadsheet will calculate a priority number for each feature
 * 8) 	Sort the list of features in descending order by calculated priority.

Example
The image below shows an example matrix based on the original matrix by Karl Wiegers, in which he first introduces the concept of the prioritization matrix.

Criticism
Wiegers prioritization is a practical tool for setting priorities for objectives and projects, but like any approach, it has certain drawbacks as well :
 * Time-consuming: When many features or needs need to be reviewed, the Wiegers prioritization method can take a while. Additionally, a specialised crew is required in order to collect and analyse the data, which can be difficult for small businesses.
 * Subjective: The process relies on estimations of benefits, penalties, costs, and risks vulnerable to personal judgments, biases, and ignorance.
 * Limited scope: The model's application is primarily for software development projects, which might not be appropriate for projects or industries in other fields.
 * Lack of adaptability: The model may not accommodate the particular requirements and conditions of the project or organisation because it is based on predetermined categories and weightings.
 * Limited data: The model is based on small data and does not account for external factors that can impact the organisation or the project.
 * Risk of gold plating: Because the risk of gold plating is not considered in the model, it may result in the development of expensive and low-value features.
 * Wiegers prioritization is a tool, and it's always a good idea to combine it with other approaches and methods to ensure that the choice is based on various viewpoints.

Other prioritization techniques

 * MoSCoW method
 * Kano model
 * User Story Mapping