Product backlogs: choosing and using prioritisation frameworks
For product managers, product owners and service or project coordinators who decide what a team works on next. It follows 'Product discovery: understanding the problem before building' (helpful but not required): once you know the problem, this course helps you order the work. You'll choose a method that fits the decision, apply MoSCoW to a release with an effort check, calculate RICE and WSJF scores, balance features with support and technical debt, and explain the order to stakeholders. Sources are the GOV.UK Service Manual, the Scrum Guide, the Agile Business Consortium's MoSCoW guidance, Intercom's RICE article and SAFe's public WSJF definition. Scores support a decision; they don't make it for you. No prior framework knowledge is needed.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 84 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Choose a prioritisation method that suits the decision, the team and the product's stage
- Sort backlog items into MoSCoW categories and check the Must Have effort against a 60% limit
- Calculate RICE scores to rank ideas, and identify when to work out of score order
- Calculate a WSJF ratio from cost of delay and job size to sequence work
- Balance features, support work and technical debt in a backlog and explain the order to stakeholders
Course outline
- 1.Choosing a prioritisation method that suits the decisionLesson · 12 min
- 2.Sorting backlog items into MoSCoW categories with an effort checkLesson · 14 min
- 3.Calculating RICE scores and knowing when to work out of orderLesson · 14 min
- 4.Calculating a WSJF ratio from cost of delay and job sizeLesson · 12 min
- 5.Balancing work types and explaining the order to stakeholdersLesson · 12 min
- 6.Product backlogs: choosing and using prioritisation frameworks: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Product backlogs: choosing and using prioritisation frameworks: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- GOV.UK Service Manual: Deciding on priorities
- GOV.UK Service Manual: Developing a roadmap
- The Scrum Guide (2020), Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
- Agile Business Consortium: MoSCoW Prioritisation (DSDM Project Framework)
- Intercom blog: RICE prioritization framework for product managers
- Scaled Agile Framework: Weighted Shortest Job First (public definition)
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.