Information: Defining what needs to be Delivered

Ensuring that enough information is agreed upon and requirements are confirmed before moving forward with a task is crucial for efficiency and success. You should assess whether you have this, and if not, work to gather it before committing a lot of time to a task.

I am a big fan of the MoSCoW method, developed by Dai Clegg in 1994 while working at Oracle. MoSCoW is now widely used in Agile project management, and helps prioritise requirements by categorising them into:

• Must-Have – Essential for the task or project to function.

• Should-Have – Important but not critical.

• Could-Have – Nice to include if time/resources allow.

• Won’t-Have (for now) – Deferred for future consideration.

Structured approaches like this, and the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ensures that only the most critical elements are addressed first, preventing scope creep, wasted effort, and managing expectations for lower-priority items.

By focusing on the core requirements, teams and individuals can reduce complexity, validate ideas quickly, and iterate efficiently.

Next step: T-Shirt Sizing