Prioritizing requirements - the process of planning new software implementation

Rob Purdie is going to be helping Greenpeace UK select a new CMS to replace their custom-built ColdFusion one. He's going to be blogging the process -- not just what applications he is looking at (Drupal is one of them), but also the actual process of selection. Definitely required reading for anyone that does consulting around helping organizations select/implement applications.

When you're planning to implement a new piece of software, prioritizing your requirements is really important because a) it helps you focus on the things that matter most and b) it makes selecting the right product way less of a crap shoot. But unless you follow a logically sound prioritization process — one that all project stakeholders understand and buy into — prioritizing requirements can be an arbitrary and unnecessarily emotional exercise (i.e. the exact opposite of what you want it to be).
Important Projects: HOW TO Prioritize Requirements (Part I)

Rob covers Step 1 (Define and weight organizational objectives and Step 2 (Define and weight user types) in this post. Rick Vugteveen posted some earlier info on Drupal.org.