Prioritization
The practice of deciding the sequence of work and clarifying what should be done now versus what can be deferred until later.
Key Points
- Determines the order of work so the most important or time-sensitive items are addressed first.
- Separates immediate tasks from those that can wait, aligning effort with goals and constraints.
- In agile, it is revisited frequently as new information, risks, and stakeholder needs emerge.
- Uses clear criteria such as value, urgency, risk, dependencies, and cost of delay.
Example
A product owner reviews the backlog before sprint planning, ranking features by business value and urgency to decide which items go into the next sprint and which will be postponed to later iterations.
PMP Example Question
During backlog refinement, the team decides which items will be delivered in the next sprint and which will be deferred. What activity is this?
- Prioritization
- Timeboxing
- Decomposition
- Resource leveling
Correct Answer: A — Prioritization
Explanation: Prioritization decides the order of work and distinguishes what is done now from what is deferred.
