Imagine a situation where you start working on a software development project which includes a task management application. The team begins to incorporate intricate features such as AI-driven task predictions and virtual reality task boards—features that, while technically impressive, do not align with the core business goals of increasing user adoption and overall productivity.  

As a result, the development timeline extends, resources are allocated to less impactful features, and the end product, despite its advanced capabilities, does not resonate with the practical needs of the intended users.

What happened here? Business priorities were not defined first. Instead, the team jumped to the development phase right away.  

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What are business priorities?

Business priorities are the strategic and operational objectives that an organization identifies and focuses on to achieve its overall goals and sustain growth.  

For example, business priorities can increase market share, reduce expenses, or maintain a competitive edge by introducing innovative products or services.  

Why is defining business priorities at the beginning of the project so important?  

According to industry research, 37% of project failures are attributed to poorly defined or misunderstood requirements. On the contrary, projects with well-documented requirements are more likely to achieve their objectives, with a success rate of 75%.  

Now that we have understood what business requirements are and why they are so important, let’s see what the most efficient way is of defining them.  

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Step 1: Understand the business landscape

Before embarking on a software development project, it is important to understand the business landscape. This involves collaboration with key stakeholders to identify goals, challenges, and opportunities, as well as industry trends, competition, customer preferences, and regulatory frameworks.  

These are the key activities to understand the business landscape:

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Interview key stakeholders  

Schedule interviews with stakeholders so that you can understand how they envision the product – expectations, pain points, benefits etc.  

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Define KPIs  

Work collaboratively with stakeholders to establish key performance indicators that align with broader business goals. These KPIs could include metrics related to revenue growth, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, or market share. According to the results, it will be easier to prioritize the features of your solution.  

However, it is important to mention that defining KPIs is not an integral part of a project, and it is important mainly in specific projects (such as developing a web page, or a b2c application).  

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Main questions to cover in the step 1 – understanding the business landscape:  

• What is the purpose of the product?
• Who are clients/users?
• Which problem does the product solve?
• Which value does it create?
• Which domain is relevant?
• What is the background of product creation?  

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Step 2: Prioritize features based on business value they provide

Not all features are equal, and the challenge lies in identifying and focusing on those that will deliver the most significant impact.

This is how you can differentiate those that will provide the most benefits:

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The MoSCoW method

The MoSCoW method, a technique to define priorities, segments features into Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won't-haves. Must-haves are essential and comprise the core solution, while Should-haves and Could-haves provide flexibility for additional requirements or enhancements, if needed. Won't-haves are features deliberately excluded to maintain focus.

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Time-to-market

When talking about time-to-market, the central point is iterative approach. The goal is to make a solution that can be delivered quickly and that provides value for the business. This iterative approach allows you to release functional software in shorter cycles, gathering feedback and making improvements along the way.

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Collaborate with different teams

Collaboration with different teams includes working with developers, designers, and quality assurance. This will allow you to get diverse perspectives and identify potential challenges and opportunities associated with each feature.

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Step 3: Never stop adapting  

It’s important to keep in mind that once you define priorities, this doesn’t mean that you are done with this task for good. On the contrary, software development is a dynamic process, and you must keep going back to priorities to make necessary changes.  

This is what will help you make those changes more easily:

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Agile methodologies

Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, provide a framework for iterative development. Regular sprint reviews and retrospectives allow for continuous feedback.  

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Monitor key metrics

Establish a system for monitoring key metrics which include user engagement, system performance, and feedback from end-users. By closely tracking these metrics, you can identify areas of success and areas that require adjustment.  

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Keep in touch with stakeholders

Maintain open communication with stakeholders, even conducting regular meetings with them if necessary. By keeping stakeholders informed of progress and involving them in decision-making processes, you can ensure that business priorities remain aligned with evolving needs.

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Tips & tricks to successfully define business priorities

• Conduct collaborative workshops involving diverse teams to get different perspectives and insights
• Conduct innovation sprints, allowing team members to explore creative solutions and new features that could add unexpected value.

What do you achieve by carefully creating business priorities?

Enlight Engineering has had numerous projects where business priorities were not created in projects we joined halfway through. This is why learned the hard way the importance of setting foundations for future development.  

So, here is an example of how we start the project.

Firstly, we have a project and business discovery meeting(s) where we go into depth on what business priorities and needs are, as well as the purpose and goals of the project.  

After that, monthly steering meetings take the stage where we:  

• Track project progress (roadmap and milestones)
• Identify main issues and risks
• Have short project status
• Check how much from the budget has been spent
• Define key action items
• Identify opportunities and make business plans accordingly

Monthly steering meetings and the abovementioned activities serve to check whether there should be any changes made to defined priorities.  

What is the value achieved by defining business priorities?

• A tailor-made Way of Working can be defined
• QA process (requirements and test management) which leads to the stable product on the market  
• MVP planning
• Reaching the market in time
• Project initiation process can be implemented to avoid similar problems in the future and keep in mind the business priorities
• Transparency and controllability (key information is available which is essential to make decisions) as a mechanism to manage priorities

Creating business priorities isn't just about checkboxes; it's like crafting a roadmap for success. It helps us work in a way that fits our project like a glove, keeping things transparent, flexible, and, most importantly, making sure we're delivering something people truly need in the market.

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