Prioritizing Requirements – Rating

Techniques
Rating is only one part of prioritizing requirements but you need to select an appropriate technique.
Voting can be done through a pre-session survey or in-session. Key success factors include:

1) Setup – the right needs and requirements to be prioritized are chosen (purpose based)
2) Involvement – the right stakeholders are involved in prioritization
3) Facilitation – a skilled facilitator is used
4) Tools – the right methods and tools for voting are used

Below are the four main rating techniques for prioritizing requirements:

1 | Survey
Factors must be well defined – no ambiguity
Must be simple, easy to understand, and complete
Must be able to enforce completion deadline
Collection and statistical analysis completed
Allows for the ability to weight the respondents – ex. weight may vary based on position,
responsibility, role (customer), etc

2 | Facilitated Blind Voting (in session voting)

Participants vote on one topic (or a group) by completing a card or a ballot
Cards of ballots are collected, grouped, and tabulated
If consensus is unsatisfactory, must discuss and re-vote

3 | Group Voting (“show of hands”)

A simple show of hands in the session
Visibly collected (flip chart)
Results calculated in real-time
Facilitated discussion re-voting an optional variation

4 | Blind Voting Using an Electronic Tool

Requires appropriate technology
Specially-equipped rooms with terminal, voting keypads, or PC’s for each stakeholder
Specialized software