• Prioritize all the stories using MoSCoW
You assign every user story one of four MoSCoW priorities and then arrange the Jira backlog from highest to lowest priority.
| Priority | Meaning | Guiding question |
|---|---|---|
| Must Have | Essential for the feature or first usable release | Will the feature fail or become unusable without this story? |
| Should Have | Important, but a temporary workaround is possible | Is it valuable but not essential for the first release? |
| Could Have | Desirable enhancement with lower business impact | Can it be removed with limited impact? |
| Won’t Have this time | Explicitly excluded from the current four-sprint roadmap | Can it be deferred to a later release? |
How you should prioritize
They should evaluate each story using:
- Business value — Does it directly support the customer’s main goal?
- Dependency impact — Do other stories or teams need it first?
- Risk reduction — Does completing it early reduce technical or integration risk?
- Legal, security, or compliance need — Is it mandatory?
- MVP importance — Is it required for a basic end-to-end customer journey?
- Time and capacity — Can it realistically fit within the four sprints?
GlobalZipCart example: Cart and Checkout
| User story | MoSCoW priority | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Add a product to the cart | Must | The cart cannot function without it |
| Update product quantity | Must | Essential cart-management capability |
| Remove an item from the cart | Must | Required for a usable cart |
| Complete checkout | Must | Required to create an order |
| Calculate shipping and tax | Must | Needed for an accurate order total |
| Apply a promotional code | Should | Important business feature, but checkout can work without it |
| Save cart for later | Should | Valuable, but not required for the initial purchase flow |
| Display product recommendations in the cart | Could | Helpful enhancement, not essential |
| Create multiple named shopping carts | Won’t this time | Can be deferred to a later release |
Important clarification
Must Have does not mean “I really want it.”
A Must Have story should pass this test:
“Without this story, can the assigned feature still deliver its essential purpose?”
If the answer is no, it is probably Must Have.
Jira backlog order
Within Jira, you should normally arrange stories in this order:
Must → Should → Could → Won’t Have this time
Within each category, they should further order stories by dependency, business value, risk, and logical delivery sequence.
For example, a foundational API needed by three other teams should appear above a user-interface enhancement, even when both are classified as Must Have.
Teaching line
MoSCoW identifies how necessary each story is. Backlog ordering determines which story should be delivered first.
