VANKPA
The decision
Feature prioritization begins with the workflow constraint the application must remove. Compare requests by user need, operational impact, uncertainty, and dependency. A request from an influential stakeholder should still explain the problem and the intended outcome.
In practice
A team may ask for advanced reporting while staff cannot reliably complete the core approval journey. Fixing the blocked workflow can be the more useful first release. Keep a record of why decisions were made so deferred requests can be revisited with evidence.
- Group requests into required behavior, near-term improvements, and experiments.
- Estimate the effort and operating burden with the delivery team.
- Agree a release objective and acceptance criteria, then review new requests against that objective before adding them.
When to take the next step
Revisit priorities when the request list exceeds the next release's capacity. Bring evidence of blocked work and distinguish urgent defects from speculative enhancements.
Questions clients ask
Should we score every feature?
Scoring can help, but clear assumptions and discussion matter more than a false impression of numerical certainty.
When should priorities change?
When user evidence, dependencies, business needs, or delivery constraints materially change.