Requirements prioritization in agile: Use of planning poker for maximizing return on investment

Abstract

Agile Methodologies are gaining popularity at lightning pace and have provided software industry a way to deliver products incrementally at a rapid pace. With an attempt to welcome changing requirements and incremental delivery, requirements prioritization becomes vital for the success of the product and thereby the organization. However, prioritizing requirements can become a nightmare for product owners and there is no easy way to create a product backlog, 1 to n list of prioritized requirements. For an organization to succeed, it is crucial to work first on requirements that are not only of high value to the customer but also require minimum cost and effort in order to maximize their Return On Investment (ROI). Agile values and principles talk about software craftsmanship and ways to write good quality code and thereby minimize introduction of any new technical debt. However, no solution is described on how to handle existing technical debt for legacy projects. To maintain a sustainable pace, technical debt needs to be managed efficiently so that teams are not bogged down. This paper talks about estimating priority using planning poker, modified Fibonacci series cards, and provides a multi-phase solution to create a product backlog in order to maximize ROI. This paper also provides a method of handling and prioritizing technical debt and the impact of non-functional requirements on technical debt prioritization. The solution proposed is then substantiated using an industrial case study.