Prioritization Rules of Thumb

For prioritization to be effective and not become an unproductive burden, it is helpful to follow some rules of thumb or heuristics.

These rules help keep the focus on value, manage the backlog efficiently, and balance the need to adapt with the importance of completing the work started.

They are not inflexible laws, but practical guidelines that facilitate day-to-day decision making in agile backlog management.

Start with Important Objectives, Don't Prioritize the Entire Backlog

Prioritization should always start with the most important objectives. It is easy to fall into the trap of filling the team's capacity with small or easy tasks, rather than addressing the strategic initiatives that really move the needle.

The focus should be on value and impact, not just keeping the team busy. Equally important is not trying to prioritize the entire backlog.

It is a waste of time to meticulously sort through items that are far down the list, as priorities will inevitably change before the team gets to them.

Energy should be focused on sorting and refining only the top of the backlog, the one that represents the imminent work.

Prioritize Up, Clarify Value First

An efficient technique for sorting the backlog is to always prioritize "upward". When reviewing the list, if an item needs to move up in priority, it moves up.

If it needs to move down, simply leave it where it is temporarily and continue reviewing.

Eventually, the most important items will move up to their correct position without the need to repeatedly move less important items down.

Before any item can be prioritized in a meaningful way, it is critical to clarify its value.

If it is not clear what benefit it brings to the user or the business, or why it is necessary, the item should not be prioritized until that information is available. Value is the main criterion for agile prioritization.

Adapt to Change, but Finish the Work Started

While agile values responsiveness to change, this does not mean constantly abandoning work in progress every time a new priority arises.

Changing context comes at a cost, and leaving work half-done is wasteful. The rule of thumb is to finish what has been started before taking on new items.

Changing priorities will affect the next item taken from the backlog, not