New PMP® Exam 2021: 4 product backlog prioritization techniques

1. Kano Model

The Kano Model of product development and customer satisfaction was published in 1984 by Dr Noriaki Kano, professor of quality management at the Tokyo University of Science.

Kano says that a product or service is about much more than just functionality. It is also about customers’ emotions.

The Kano model assigns three types of attribute (or property) to products and services:

i. Threshold Attributes (Basics). These are the basic features that customers expect a product or service to have.

E.g. when you book into a hotel, you’d expect hot water and a bed with clean linen as an absolute minimum.

ii. Performance Attributes (Satisfiers). These elements are not absolutely necessary, but they increase a customer’s enjoyment of the product or service.

E.g. you’d be pleased to discover that your hotel room had free superfast broadband and an HD TV, when you’d normally expect to find paid-for wi-fi and a standard TV.

iii. Excitement Attributes (Delighters). These are the surprise elements that can really boost your product’s competitive edge. They are the features that customers don’t even know they want, but are delighted with when they find them.

E.g. In your hotel room, that might be finding the complimentary Belgian chocolates that the evening turn-down service has left on the bed.

2. MoSCoW (MSCW) analysis

The MoSCoW method was developed by Dai Clegg of Oracle® UK Consulting in the mid-1990s.

It’s a useful approach for sorting project tasks into critical and non-critical categories.

3. Paired Comparison Analysis

Paired Comparison Analysis (also known as Pairwise Comparison) helps you work out the importance of a number of options relative to one another. The basis for the method dates back to its first reported use in the mid-1800s.

This video clip from mindtools will explore how you can use Paired Comparison Analysis to make decisions.

4. 100 Points Method

The 100 Points Method (also call 100 dollar, fixed sum, or fixed allocation) was proposed by Dean Leffingwell and Don Widrig in 2003.

The 100 Points method lets participants distribute 100 points to prioritize different items. The ratings are shown in percentage, with the most popular choice ranked from the top.