Do all stakeholders agree with “value”?

Often we focus upon business value. More often than not this means “the business” saying what is most important to them. There are often requirements that are mandatory parts to the project, but do not drive any business value in themselves. For example compliance and operational support. It is thus essential to invite all stakeholders to prioritisation workshops and be clear with the language used when commencing the prioritisation. Rather than just asking participants to ascribe “Must have”, “should have”, “Could have”, “would like to have / won’t have” (“MoSCoW) priorities to requirements without context, ask them to group their requirements into clearly defined chunks of functionality that can could be delivered as a self-contained releases that would deliver “business value”. In this way you are more likely to have “must haves” that make sense to all parties involved.