In any case, these rankings were specific to the people involved. I was only sharing the technique, not suggesting that their ranking are relevant to anyone else.

In the final evaluation, each feature was rated with a single number from the matrix. The idea was that each feature had a dominant characteristic that could be found in one cell, trumping all others. I first saw this as a variation on the relative weighting technique. But it is simpler – one feature, one priority number. Ties were left for future consideration.

Thanks for this, but I don’t quite follow all of it.

It seems to me that “compliance” is a different kind of criteria from the others. For example, I get that a feature with Low sales impact is of “5″ importance; consequently, a feature that even promotes a low increase in sales is still more important than a feature with only a medium reduction in costs and no sales potential.

But what is “High impact” on compliance? I perceive compliance to be a binary phenomenon: I need this feature to meet some mandatory standard. The product is either compliant or it is not. So “high” is must have this feature. Medium and low are …? The feature sort of helps achieve compliance? Compliance is not a more or less, it’s an is or isn’t. I’m never happy with half a baby. (I’m not necessarily happy with a whole baby either, but that’s based on other criteria.)

Not certain I understood the final feature evaluation, either. Each feature was assigned points from *each* criteria in the matrix (makes sense to me) or only from 1 (predominant?) criteria? I can’t figure the latter case. I assume the former, even though I have trouble reading it that way

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