HKSM
Monopoly Money
A prioritization technique where stakeholders receive a pretend budget equal to the project funds and are asked to spend this fake money across user stories. Their allocations indicate what they are most willing to fund, revealing the relative priority of each story.
Key Points
- Simulates real budget trade-offs without spending actual money.
- Prioritization is based on willingness to pay, not simple voting.
- Works well during backlog refinement, release planning, or roadmap discussions.
- Results can be tallied to produce a ranked backlog and combined with effort to assess value-to-cost.
Example
The product owner gives key stakeholders a notional USD 1,000,000 budget in play money and asks them to distribute it across 12 user stories. Stakeholders allocate USD 300k to online payments, USD 250k to fraud detection, USD 200k to reporting, and smaller amounts to others. The team uses the totals to order the backlog, focusing first on payments and fraud detection.
PMP Example Question
During backlog refinement, the team wants to rank features by how much the customer would fund them without spending real money. Which technique should the project manager use?
- Kano analysis
- Monopoly Money
- Planning Poker
- MoSCoW prioritization
Correct Answer: B — Monopoly Money
Explanation: Monopoly Money uses a pretend budget that stakeholders allocate to user stories, revealing priorities based on willingness to pay.
