skills-library/skills/lean/prioritization.md

Skill: Lean - Prioritization

Description

Apply lean prioritization frameworks to make decisions about what to build next. Uses WSJF, MoSCoW, and effort/impact matrices.

Input

• items: List of items to prioritize (required)
• framework: wsjf|moscow|effort_impact|rice (optional, default: wsjf)
• constraints: Time, budget, capacity limits (optional)
• weights: Custom weights for scoring factors (optional)

Prioritization Frameworks

1. WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First)

Best for: Sprint planning, feature prioritization

Priority = (User Value + Time Criticality + Risk Reduction) / Job Size

Higher score = Do first

Scoring Matrix:

Factor	1-3	4-6	7-9	10
User Value	Few users	Some users	Most users	All users
Time Criticality	No deadline	Quarter	Month	This sprint
Risk Reduction	Minor	Moderate	Significant	Critical
Job Size (effort)	< 2 hours	1-2 days	3-5 days	> 1 week

Example:

{
  "item": "Add password reset",
  "user_value": 8,
  "time_criticality": 7,
  "risk_reduction": 6,
  "job_size": 5,
  "wsjf_score": 4.2
}
// Score = (8 + 7 + 6) / 5 = 4.2

2. MoSCoW Method

Best for: Release planning, MVP definition

Category	Description	Guidance
Must Have	Non-negotiable, core functionality	Release blocked without
Should Have	Important but not critical	Include if time permits
Could Have	Nice to have	Descope first if needed
Won't Have	Out of scope for this release	Document for future

Distribution Rule:

• Must: 60% of effort
• Should: 20% of effort
• Could: 20% of effort
• Won't: 0% (explicitly excluded)

3. Effort/Impact Matrix

Best for: Quick prioritization, team discussions

            High Impact
                 │
    Quick Wins   │   Major Projects
    (Do Now)     │   (Plan Carefully)
─────────────────┼─────────────────────
    Fill-Ins     │   Thankless Tasks
    (If Time)    │   (Avoid/Delegate)
                 │
            Low Impact

Low Effort ─────────────── High Effort

Quadrant Actions:

1. Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort): Do immediately
2. Major Projects (High Impact, High Effort): Schedule, break down
3. Fill-Ins (Low Impact, Low Effort): Do when free
4. Thankless Tasks (Low Impact, High Effort): Eliminate or defer

4. RICE Framework

Best for: Product decisions with reach data

RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Reach: Users affected per quarter
Impact: 0.25 (minimal) to 3 (massive)
Confidence: 0-100%
Effort: Person-months

Scheduling & Parallelization

Dependency Resolution

{
  "item_id": "BLI-050",
  "depends_on": ["BLI-048", "BLI-049"],
  "blocks": ["BLI-053", "BLI-054"],
  "parallel_with": ["BLI-051", "BLI-052"],
  "scheduling": {
    "earliest_start": "After BLI-048 & BLI-049 complete",
    "can_parallelize": true,
    "parallelization_candidates": ["BLI-051", "BLI-052"]
  }
}

Parallelization Rules

function canParallelize(itemA, itemB) {
  // No shared dependencies
  const sharedDeps = itemA.depends_on.filter(d =>
    itemB.depends_on.includes(d)
  );
  if (sharedDeps.length > 0) return false;

  // Different agents
  if (itemA.assigned_agent === itemB.assigned_agent) return false;

  // No blocking relationship
  if (itemA.blocks.includes(itemB.id)) return false;
  if (itemB.blocks.includes(itemA.id)) return false;

  return true;
}

Optimal Schedule Generation

{
  "schedule": {
    "week_1": {
      "parallel_tracks": [
        { "agent": "frontend", "items": ["BLI-050", "BLI-051"] },
        { "agent": "backend", "items": ["BLI-048", "BLI-049"] }
      ],
      "capacity_used": "85%"
    },
    "week_2": {
      "parallel_tracks": [
        { "agent": "frontend", "items": ["BLI-053"] },
        { "agent": "backend", "items": ["BLI-052"] },
        { "agent": "tester", "items": ["BLI-050-test", "BLI-051-test"] }
      ],
      "capacity_used": "90%"
    }
  },
  "critical_path": ["BLI-048", "BLI-050", "BLI-053"],
  "total_duration": "2 weeks",
  "parallelization_savings": "40%"
}

Output Format

{
  "status": "success",
  "framework": "wsjf",
  "prioritized_items": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "id": "BLI-043",
      "title": "User authentication",
      "score": 7.33,
      "category": "must_have",
      "quadrant": "quick_win"
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "id": "BLI-050",
      "title": "Password reset",
      "score": 5.67,
      "category": "must_have",
      "quadrant": "major_project"
    }
  ],
  "schedule": {
    "sprint_1": ["BLI-043", "BLI-045"],
    "sprint_2": ["BLI-050", "BLI-047"],
    "backlog": ["BLI-055", "BLI-060"]
  },
  "parallelization": {
    "recommended_groups": [
      ["BLI-043", "BLI-044"],
      ["BLI-050", "BLI-051"]
    ],
    "time_savings": "35%"
  },
  "recommendations": [
    "BLI-050 has effort 9 - consider splitting",
    "BLI-043 and BLI-044 can run in parallel",
    "Remove BLI-060 - low impact, high effort"
  ],
  "next_step": "Commit to sprint with /sprint plan"
}

Decision Matrix Template

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PRIORITIZATION DECISION                                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  Items Evaluated: 25                                            │
│  Framework: WSJF + Effort/Impact                                │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐     │
│  │ MUST DO (Score > 6)        │ SHOULD DO (Score 4-6)   │     │
│  │ • User auth (7.33)         │ • Dark mode (5.20)      │     │
│  │ • Password reset (6.67)    │ • Notifications (4.80)  │     │
│  │ • Profile page (6.40)      │ • Search (4.50)         │     │
│  ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤     │
│  │ COULD DO (Score 2-4)       │ WON'T DO (Score < 2)    │     │
│  │ • Export CSV (3.50)        │ • Social login (1.80)   │     │
│  │ • Keyboard shortcuts (2.90)│ • Mobile app (1.20)     │     │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘     │
│                                                                 │
│  Recommended: Focus on MUST DO items for next 2 sprints        │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quality Gates

• All items have consistent scoring
• Dependencies documented
• Parallelization opportunities identified
• Schedule accounts for capacity
• Clear decision rationale
• Stakeholder alignment

Token Budget

• Max input: 1000 tokens
• Max output: 1500 tokens

Model

• Recommended: sonnet (decision reasoning)

Philosophy

"If everything is important, nothing is."

Keep it simple:

• Prioritize ruthlessly
• Say no to low-impact work
• Parallelize aggressively
• Ship the most valuable thing first