The 3 layers of prioritization are the same regardless of what the Scrum Team is developing. However, overall prioritization strategies differ based on the main goals of the Team. There are 3 goal-driven Team prioritization strategies:
1. Continuous Improvement
A Continuous Improvement strategy is primarily for Teams doing Maintenance or providing features on an opportunistic basis; there is little (or no) long-term strategy to be considered when prioritizing.
2. Defined Feature Delivery
This strategy is used when the Team has a fixed set of Features to deliver, often on a given date. The Goal of this strategy is to get all the Features across the finish line to be minimally releasable at the time of Release. This focus is constant and paramount in all prioritization efforts.
3. Fuzzy Feature Delivery
This is the “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it,” type of delivery. When done well, it usually turns into a series of (internal) Defined Feature Delivery Releases, as the necessary Features make themselves known. When done poorly, it could turn into a Continuous Improvement Delivery, with everybody hoping that there will be a successful endpoint.
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