How to prioritize for dollars
When you do your sprint planning, do you get the feeling that the priorities may as well be random? Well, you’re probably right. There are good ways to prioritize, but your boss probably isn’t doing them. You should definitely read on because I’m going to give you a formula that’s way better than random.
Are you thinking: what formula is this?
The formula
It’s called Weighted Shortest Job First. Here’s how it works:
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Assign cost of delay to each user story. What’s cost of delay? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that in a later post. In the meantime, see if marketing will do their own version of planning poker.
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Estimate the cost of each story. You can use story points if you want.
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Divide value (from step 1) by cost (from step 2).
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Sort, decending.
So what’s happening here?
In step 1, bigger is better. In step 2, smaller is better. Why? All things being equal, getting money now is better than getting money later. Dividing bigger values by smaller costs gives you bigger total value.
Let me know in the comments how you’re able to use this to make your life easier.
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