# Must, should, could: cut scope, not the date > When the list is longer than the time, sort every deliverable with one test, agree in advance what is dropped first, and keep the fixed date. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Scope: what is in and what is out - Lesson 7/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/must-should-could ## Everything is a must **Alex Tutor:** The list has owners, effort ranges and acceptance criteria. Now the hard part: the owners have marked almost everything "must", and the likely effort is more than the team can give before 1 February. **Leo:** Then we move the opening a couple of weeks. Better late than half-done. **Sofia:** Families book exam preparation before the exam season. Two weeks late means two weeks of learners lost to other schools. **Alex Tutor:** Right. When the date serves the goal, it is the last thing you move. The first thing you move is **scope**: what the launch includes. **Alex Tutor:** To cut well, sort every line into **must, should, could**: what you can't launch without, what you should include if time allows, and what you could add. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** when the work doesn't fit before a fixed opening date that the exam season sets, moving the date is the first option to look at. ## One test for a must **Vira:** Then video solutions for the forty hardest tasks are a must. Without them the quality isn't there. **Danylo:** And the parent progress dashboard. Parents will ask how their child is doing. **Alex Tutor:** Use one test, the same for everyone: can we open on 1 February and reach the goal without it? If yes, it is not a must, however much we like it. **Sofia:** Tutors can explain hard tasks in the lesson itself. And parents can ask the tutor until a dashboard exists. **Alex Tutor:** So both pass without them. That doesn't make them bad ideas; it makes them should or could, decided by the people who own the goal, not by whoever shouts loudest. > **Exercise:** Which question decides whether a deliverable is a **must** for the physics launch? ## Should, could and not this time **Alex Tutor:** A should hurts to leave out but has a workaround. A could is nice and easy to drop. And "not this time" isn't a fourth box on the list: it's the brief's out list. **Danylo:** The waiting list on the early landing page is two days of my time. Should? **Alex Tutor:** Should, and a cheap one: it checks demand in December, before most of the money is spent. **Hanna:** For the record, money isn't what is short this time. Most of the list fits under the 600,000. It's the days that don't fit. **Alex Tutor:** Good point. Always check which limit actually binds. Cutting the cheapest items saves money you don't need to save. > **Exercise:** Sort these physics launch items with the must test. **Alex Tutor:** Hanna's point changes what to cut. Check it. > **Exercise:** Hanna says most of the list fits under the 600,000 UAH ceiling; it's the days before 1 February that don't fit. Which items should you look at first when cutting? ## Agree the drop order now **Sofia:** Once it's sorted, do the musts have to fill all the time we have? **Alex Tutor:** No. If the musts alone fill the capacity, any slip breaks the date. Keep the musts clearly below it; shoulds and coulds fill the rest and are the first to go. **Alex Tutor:** Check the rule about capacity. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** the plan is safest when the musts fill exactly the team's capacity before 1 February, so no time is wasted. **Alex Tutor:** Then rank the shoulds and coulds in the order you'd drop them, and have Leo sign that order now, in October. **Leo:** Why now? I could decide in January, when we know more. **Alex Tutor:** In January every owner defends their item under pressure. Decided calmly now, a slip becomes one line in the status note: "dropped the next item, the date holds." > **Exercise:** Put the steps of cutting scope in order. ## Saying it to an owner **Danylo:** I still think parents need the dashboard. Who tells them no? **Alex Tutor:** Nobody tells them no. The dashboard moves to could, and it goes on the list for after the launch, with the reason written down. **Vira:** Same for my video solutions, then. As long as it's written that they come back after launch. **Alex Tutor:** That's the habit: the must test, a reason, and a place for the idea later. People accept a cut they can see the logic of. **Alex Tutor:** Try the habit on Vira's item. > **Exercise:** Vira says her video solutions for the forty hardest tasks are a must. The must test says they aren't. What is the best way to handle it? **Sofia:** And if in January something slips anyway? **Alex Tutor:** Then you go down the signed order: the next item comes out, Leo hears it in the weekly status, and the date holds. **Leo:** And if the next item is something I care about? **Alex Tutor:** Then you change the order now, while it costs nothing. The case next time does this with real numbers. > **Exercise:** In January the diagnostic test build slips by a week. The signed drop order starts with the January advertising, then the level report for parents. What do you propose to Leo? **Alex Tutor:** One owner is still unconvinced. Your turn to answer Danylo. > **Exercise:** Danylo still insists the parent progress dashboard is a must. Write him a reply of three or four sentences that uses the must test, says where the dashboard goes, and keeps him on your side. > **Key ideas** > > - With a fixed date that serves the goal, cut **scope**, not the date. > - Sort every deliverable into **must, should, could**. The must test: can we open on time and reach the goal without it? If yes, it isn't a must. > - Should hurts to leave out but has a workaround; could is easy to drop; "not this time" belongs on the brief's out list. > - Check which limit binds: here it's days, not money. > - Keep the musts clearly below capacity, rank the rest in drop order, and get the sponsor to sign that order before any slip. - Previous lesson: [Acceptance criteria: what "done" means](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/acceptance-criteria.md) - Next lesson: [Case: the deliverable list that doesn't fit](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/deliverable-list-case.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.