prioritywhat

Prioritywhat is a decision-making framework used to rank tasks, features, or projects by focusing on the essential question of what should be prioritized. It treats priority as a result of a deliberate process that starts with a clearly defined objective and then evaluates candidates against criteria that reflect value, urgency, risk, and cost. The aim is to produce a transparent, repeatable basis for comparing alternatives.

Core elements include a defined primary objective (the what to achieve), a set of criteria that capture relevant dimensions of value, weights to reflect relative importance, and a scoring scheme that rates each candidate on each criterion. The final priority score is a weighted aggregate, enabling straightforward ranking and traceability of decisions. The method is designed to be lightweight and adaptable, suitable for roadmaps, sprint planning, and everyday project choices.

Origins and usage: The concept has appeared in management literature and practice since the 2010s, often in product management, IT planning, and operations research. It aligns with multicriteria decision analysis but is typically implemented in lean forms to support quick prioritization decisions in dynamic environments.

Applications: Prioritywhat supports prioritization of features, projects, policies, or resource allocation. It encourages explicit goals and regular re-evaluation as conditions change.

Example: A team must choose among three features. The objective is to maximize user value within limited development effort. Criteria include impact, effort, and risk, with weights 0.5, 0.3, 0.2. Scores are F1: (8,5,2) => 0.5*8 + 0.3*5 + 0.2*2 = 5.9; F2: (6,4,3) => 0.5*6 + 0.3*4 + 0.2*3 = 4.8; F3: (7,7,1) => 0.5*7 + 0.3*7 + 0.2*1 = 5.8. F1 ranks highest, guiding the decision.

Limitations and variations: Results depend on chosen objectives and weights, which can introduce subjectivity and bias. Normalization, alternative aggregation methods, and sensitivity analysis are common refinements.