A good point about risks. One shouldn’t just blindly put items according to the value points initially assigned by the product owner. Every item should be prioritized not just only from business value, but also according to risk, dependencies to others, and other input from developers and other stakeholders. The product owner should have the final say though.

/Joakim

I like the complexity/importance graph, that is an interesting way to look at stories. Another axis I consider is risk, what looks risky gets higher priority. This may or may not correlate to complexity, for example it could be an interface to an external system where the team has to deal with unknowns, a different company, etc. Highly risky items are by nature high priority.

We have used a similar points scheme for business value, however if the project has an expected return on investment, we’ll use points and weight that investment across the backlog. It has some very interesting effects on product owner and business customer behavior. I recommend trying it.

cheers,
Robin Dymond