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How SMEs and Business Owners can Benefit from an Enterprise Mobile Plan

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                                                   How SMEs and Business Owners can Benefit from an Enterprise Mobile Plan

Contents .

 Employees are increasingly using mobile phones and other personal mobile devices while working, which is a result of the recent transition to remote or hybrid work. T his has led to all of us becoming more reliant on our cellphones, as we utilize them for basic daily tasks such as email communication with clients and coworkers. It has thus become an important tool for business owners to have enterprise mobile plans that offer discounts for business calls and data usage. As business owners, we are always looking for ways to save money and increase efficiency. In this day and age, with borders reopening, it is more important than ever to have an enterprise mobile plan that can help us stay connected even as we travel.

With so many options available, it can be hard to decide which plan is right for your business. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of enterprise mobile plans and how they can help you save money while you're on the go!

What is an enterprise mobile plan and why do business owners need one?

An enterprise mobile plan is a type of mobile plan that is designed for businesses. It offers features and benefits that are not available with other types of plans, such as unlimited calls, texts and bundled data roaming. It typically offers more features and benefits than a standard phone plan and can be customized to meet the specific needs of your business.

Criteria to choose a suitable Enterprise Mobile Plan

When it comes to choosing the right enterprise mobile plan for your business, there are a few factors you will need to consider. The first thing you need to ask yourself is how often you will be using your phone while traveling. If you only need it for emergencies, then a basic plan may be all you need. However, if you will be using your phone regularly to stay in touch with clients or customers, then you may need a more robust plan that offers unlimited data and calling.

1.   Local Talk time & SMS - Do your employees consume a lot of local talk time and SMS to communicate with your customers? 

If your employees frequently use their mobile phones to communicate with customers, then you will need a plan that offers unlimited local talk time and SMS. This will allow them to stay connected without having to worry about running up a large phone bill.

2.   Data - If your line of work requires employees to work on the go often or overseas, then you'll need a mobile plan that offers a large data bundle and data roaming.

This will not only allow your employees to stay connected, but also remain productive while being away from the office.  3.   Data Roaming Charges and Coverage  - For SMEs employees who travel frequently for business across borders, do you pay per day data roaming fees? What are the countries that are covered by your current data roaming plan? 4.   SIM Only Plan - Do you require business phones and SIMs for your employees, or does a SIM-only plan suffice? Often, a SIM-only plan is much cheaper than a Phone + SIM plan. But in this instance, SME owners might not have control of company's data stored on employees' personal phones and some employees might not like the idea of mixing their personal phone with business. 5.  Business Continuity - Is there a preference for your business to keep your employees’ personal and business phones separate as a precaution against identity theft, hacking, and other security concerns?

With each employee having his or her own dedicated corporate SIM card, this means that when they quit, the SIM card / mobile phone is simply returned to the company, and all data and information stored in the company's phone can be passed to the new employee. This will help to ensure that there is no delay in existing communication with their suppliers or customers.

6.   Simplified Billing -  It's not unusual for businesses to provide mobile subsidies. On top of the daily meeting with clients for salespeople, it could be a hassle to submit these expenses one by one on a timely basis. With a unified billing, one can simply retrieve the information.

7.   Corporate Individual Scheme (CIS) - To qualify for CIS, which can be enjoyed by the staff immediate family members, SMEs need to fulfill a certain number of staff. For example, Singtel requires 200 staff, while *M1 does not have a minimum qualifying employees headcount.

*Terms and Conditions apply

BEST ENTERPRISE MOBILE PLANS  

EM3+ 5G/EM 12+ 5G/ EMX+ 5G

M1 is the only telco that offers unlimited Local Talk Time & SMS + *5G (Fair usage policy applies) for all their Enterprise Mobile Plans even if you subscribe to their cheapest EM3+5G plan ($39.70/mth).

*Amongst all the Telco services, M1 is the only one that provides 5G service even for their basic plan.

Singtel's Unlimited Local Talk Time and SMS plan only kicks in when one subscribes to their Singtel Enterprise E5 plan ($244.90), while their cheapest plan, which is the Enterprise E1 plan ($39.70), is capped at 200 minutes outgoing/ 60 local SMS.

While Starhub's Biz+ Lite plan ($54.00) is their cheapest plan, it is capped at 600 mins outgoing / 200 SMS (local), and their highest plan, Biz+ Pro, is capped at 10,000 mins outgoing/ 3,000 SMS (local).

Best Data Roaming Telco

Data roaming might be costly, and even the tiniest amount of overseas data usage could result in an enormous bill shock when you return. Thus, for SME owners or their employees who travel frequently for business, one of the main considerations is data roaming.

Singtel Enterprise Mobile Plan does not extend any Data Roaming package and data has to be purchased, which are chargeable per day under their DataRoam packages. It ranges between 2GB at $15 (30 days) for Asia countries and 3GB worldwide at $30 (30 days), or for frequent travelers, one can subscribe to their Enterprise EasyData Roam packages that start at $139 per month. 

Starhub data roaming starts at Biz+ Premium and Biz+ Pro, which carry 2GB for Asia Pacific Countries.

Do note that data roaming limits form part of your total Local Data limit. For example, if you have an EM3+ 5G plan with 13GB and use 3GB of your data roaming limit, you will only have 10GB for local data.  If you exceed your monthly data allotment, M1 will not charge you more than $5.35 per 1GB, regardless of whether you use it locally or roam. This contrasts with Singtel, which charges $10.70 per 1GB for local data above the plan's limit and their roaming limit charges vary, depending on the Data Roaming package one subscribed. 

Best Local Data Telco 

Conclusion: D epending on your Business usage needs, M1 is the clear winner when it comes to enterprise mobile plans. We appreciate the fact that they have streamlined it to three plans comprising of all the benefits, such as unlimited local talk time and SMS across all three plans.

To summarize, an enterprise mobile plan from M1 will offer you:

- Unlimited local talk time and SMS

- Free data roaming is provided with M1 plans, whereas Singtel and Starhub must be purchase separately

- The option of unlimited local data usage

To apply or enquire for M1 Enterprise Mobile Plan, click    here

BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK FOR SOLOPRENEUR AND START-UP FOUNDER

SIMBA Business Plan AND SIMBA SuperRoam- SIM Only

At a glance, SIMBA   seems to be the most value-for-money with their cheap monthly subscription rates, and a very generous 100GB local data (For SIMBA SuperRoam) and 10 GB data roaming limit (For SIMBA SuperRoam)

But do note that this is a SIM-only plan , which is great for Solopreneur or start-up founders who do not require much call minutes (500 local fixed line minutes), SMS (200 local) and handphone sets for their employees. For enterprise business owners with a team of employees, you'll need to consider other enterprise mobile plans that can offer you more features and benefits. What are the requirements to sign up for an Enterprise Mobile Plan?

Setting up a business mobile plan is also simple. All commercial plans provided by Telcos need a local registered company.

Documents Required

The company owner's or authorized officers’ identification document and the corresponding ACRA profile are all that is required Got a Question? WhatsApp Us, Our Friendly Team will get back to you asap :)   Share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

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Corporate Individual Plans

Plans Starting from $15.00/mo Data-packed plans now with Free Roaming Data

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Get anything done with Unlimited Data! All plans come with  free caller ID  and no contract.

4G Roam Plan

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• Unlimited Incoming & Outgoing Talktime
• FREE 1 GB Roaming Data forever to 8 Countries^
• *Revert back to 150GB after 6 months

5G Roam Plan

• FREE 2 GB Roaming Data forever to 8 Countries^

Exclusive: $10 Golden Village tickets**

• *$20 for 3mo, revert to $22 forever

5G Borderless

• Covers SG and 8 Asian countries*
• 5G access available in Singapore & Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand
• Free incoming Local and Roaming SMS
• *Price reverts to $37/mo after 3 months

*Countries covered: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Macau

Get anything done with Unlimited Data! All plans come with free caller ID and no contract.

• Exclusive: $10 Golden Village tickets** Limited to 4 tickets per month. New sign-ups will receive their exclusive access via SMS within 3 working days upon activation of their mobile plan.

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Frequently Asked Questions

No. Every Circles.Life customer, regardless of whether they’re subscribed to a CIS program or not, can benefit from us WITHOUT contracts.

Of course! Your code can be shared up to five times.

Sign your company up here .

Head over to our CIS page and enter your corporate email to ensure that you are eligible for a CIS Plan. Proceed to your email inbox to receive your unique promo code. Check out using the special code to unlock your CIS benefits with your newly puchase plan!

Why we do what we do

Fully digital platform, very easy to sign up and purchase! Shared my code with my family so all of us got the same good deal.

Lawrence Teo Customer of CIS

For years, it has been a great perk to engage our employees. The team replies all queries within a day and many employees have given great feedback.

Veronica Siow HR Senior Manager

Switching our Company Telco over to Circles.Life helped us save 55% and redirect those savings over to my business expansion plans.

Uthaya Shanker Managing Director

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per month (20% off U.P. $45.85)

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M1 Mobile Plans - The Telco with the Best Phone Plans in Singapore

Searching for a well-priced unlimited data plan in Singapore with mobile phone instalment options?  M1  offers exactly that — and so much more.

With options ranging from Singapore’s best prepaid data plans to no contract mobile plans with unlimited data and a brand-new phone from $0 upfront, you’ll find the best mobile plans tailored for you, made by you.

With so many different add-ons available such as free Data Usage alerts via SMS and great mobile data packs, M1 offers a fully personalised mobile plan experience!

Mobile Phone Data Plans with a Difference

Whether it’s one of the fantastic bespoke plans or M1 Prepaid SIM plans with data, when you choose M1 as your network provider, you have the freedom of adjusting both your data allowance and call minutes every month using the My M1+ App .

So if you’re planning to binge the new season of your favourite show, simply increase your allowance to accommodate - but if your phone plan already has unlimited data, you’re good to go! Conversely, if you are looking to disconnect for a few weeks and go for a staycation; simply decrease the number of call minutes you have currently!

The bottom line is, with M1, you have complete freedom to make any changes you need with zero hassles - no admin fee, interest rates or other hidden costs. Talk about the ultimate mobile experience!

1. Mobile Phone Instalment Plans in Singapore

The last thing you want is to have to sign your life away to a confusing and downright questionable contract just to get the latest handset.

At M1, we’ve simplified the way mobile phone instalment plans work in Singapore with the progressive Bespoke Flexi Plan. It’s as easy as these 4 steps:

• Choose your new mobile phone online from as little as $0 upfront
• Select an instalment period ranging from 12 to 36 months
• Decide on your monthly data and minutes allowances (which can be changed monthly, on the fly), and select a mobile data pack or other add-ons
• Order and wait for your brand-new handset to arrive at your doorstep!

2. 2-Year Contract Mobile Plan

Prefer a 2-year contract plan? The Bespoke Contract Plan is the one for you! Select the mobile phone brand of your choice and toggle between various monthly price plans that fit your budget, data talktime, and SMS requirements — and you are good to go.

   3. A No Contract SIM-only Mobile Plan

If you’re all set with a mobile device and think it’s time to re-contract or make the switch to M1, the Bespoke SIM-only Plan might be a good fit for you – one of the top customisable mobile plans. With our limited time offers, you might just get free 1000 call minutes, 1000 SMS, and Unlimited Weekend Data for 12 whole months. Yes, you read that right – for an entire year! Simply create your personalised plan by choosing your ideal data allowance and call minutes, and you’ll be entitled to exclusive discounts upon checkout. Find out more about No contract SIM plans offer

4. Best Prepaid Data Plan in Singapore

Choose from our M1 Prepaid SIM cards available at affordable prices. Head down to any of the M1 shops or our prepaid preferred partners and authorised retailers with the necessary documents and register with us. Once you have received the SIM card, get the full prepaid experience by selecting your preferred add-ons either through the M1 prepaid portal online or mobile app to boost your mobile plan.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mobile Plans

How to choose a mobile phone plan.

You’re free to choose a no contract mobile plan with phone instalments or a Bespoke Contract Plan. Once you’ve decided on your preferred option, you can then determine if you’d like an unlimited data plan and call minutes or customise from the varying allowances and talktime available.

When you opt for one of our online exclusive mobile data plans, such as the Bespoke Flexi Plan, you’re free to adjust your allowances easily every month!

How do mobile phone plans work?

The best prepaid data plans in Singapore, available right here at M1, are no contract plans that you simply recharge with additional funds after the allocated amount of time per your chosen prepaid plan.

If you require a new handset, go with a mobile phone instalment plan; pay as little as $0 upfront for a new handset and simply make monthly repayments on top of your chosen mobile plan. Either way, you’ll receive a monthly bill that summarises all payment requirements.

How do I sign up for a mobile phone plan with M1?

It really couldn’t be easier! For any of the M1 Bespoke plans, simply head to shop.M1.com.sg and sign up. Once you’ve created an account, determine whether you’d like a new phone. If you are looking for a brand new handset, go for the Bespoke Flexi mobile phone instalment plan or Bespoke Contract Plan. Otherwise, the SIM-only plan will be a better choice. After which, select the amount of call minutes and data you need - unlimited? 65GB? 20GB? The choice is entirely yours. The final step is choosing from the wide variety of add-ons available – we have Singapore’s one of the best mobile data packs, 5G Booster packs, and so much more.

Russia-Ukraine War The U.S. Plans to Send M1 Abrams Tanks to Ukraine, Officials Say

• Share full article
• Kherson Region A damaged Russian tank in a destroyed village. Nicole Tung for The New York Times
• Lyman Ukrainian soldiers on the road to the front line. Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
• Lyman Ukrainians waiting for hot meals at a hospital. Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
• Kherson Region Ukrainian soldiers rushing to move an artillery gun. Nicole Tung for The New York Times
• Kamianka Destroyed homes in the village outside of Izium. Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
• Kherson Region Ukrainian troops preparing to detonate unexploded ordnance. Nicole Tung for The New York Times
• Pyatnytske Sergiy, 52, collecting water from a well in front of his home. Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
• Donetsk Region Ukrainian soldiers firing toward a Russian position. Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters

Follow live news updates of the Russia-Ukraine war .

The U.S. decision to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine breaks new ground.

WASHINGTON — Reversing its longstanding resistance, the Biden administration plans to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, in what would be a major step in arming Kyiv in its efforts to seize back its territory from Russia.

The White House is expected to announce a decision as early as Wednesday, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. One official said the number of Abrams tanks could be about 30.

Over the past month, Pentagon officials had expressed misgivings about sending the Abrams, citing concerns about how Ukraine would maintain the advanced tanks, which require extensive training and servicing. And officials said it could take years for them to actually reach any Ukrainian battlefields.

But Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has now come around to the view that committing to sending American tanks is necessary to spur Germany to follow with its coveted Leopard 2 tanks . Officials at the State Department and the White House argued that giving Germany the political cover it sought to send its own tanks outweighed the Defense Department reluctance, the officials said.

The movement toward sending the Abrams tanks, first reported by The Wall Street Journal , follows a testy confrontation last week during a NATO defense chiefs meeting over the refusal by Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to send the Leopards, which many military experts believe could be a critical weapon in Ukrainian hands.

German officials privately insisted that they would send the tanks, among the most advanced in the world, only if the United States agreed to send its own M1 Abrams tanks.

Anticipation for a German announcement was high, as various German news outlets reported on Tuesday that Mr. Scholz had decided to send the tanks. Much of the attention focused on an expected address by the chancellor to Parliament on Wednesday.

Many European countries use German-built Leopards, which number about 2,000 across the continent, and Ukraine has pleaded for tanks in recent weeks, describing them as necessary to counter Russia’s advantages in arms and men. Western tanks are the latest barrier to fall as Ukraine’s allies supply it with weapons systems they had previously resisted sending; earlier this month, while debates over the Leopard and the Abrams wore on, Britain said it would give some of its Challenger 2 tanks.

On Tuesday, Poland’s defense minister said his country had formally requested Germany’s permission to send Ukraine Leopard tanks from its own stocks, and other countries have indicated they would do the same if Germany agreed.

In Kyiv on Tuesday, Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, told reporters at a news conference that he had discussed the supply of Western tanks to Ukraine with President Zelensky, saying the country was considering various options for its participation.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg , Lauren McCarthy and John Ismay contributed reporting.

— Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt

Several Ukrainian officials are fired amid a scandal involving military purchases.

KYIV, Ukraine — Several top Ukrainian officials were fired on Tuesday amid a ballooning corruption scandal, in the biggest upheaval in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government since Russia’s invasion began 11 months ago.

Ukraine’s cabinet ministry, which announced the firings on the Telegram social messaging app, provided no details about the reason, but they followed a number of allegations of government corruption — including reports that Ukraine’s military had agreed to pay inflated prices for food meant for its troops — and general bad behavior.

A deputy defense minister was among those removed from their posts, as was a deputy prosecutor general who caused a scandal by taking a wartime vacation to Spain. And a senior official in Mr. Zelensky’s office tendered his resignation after coming under withering criticism for zipping around in an SUV that General Motors donated for humanitarian missions.

There was no sign that the army procurement scandal involved the misappropriation of Western military assistance or would affect Ukraine’s ability to fight the Russian invasion. But the removal of the officials, coming amid almost daily pleas from Ukraine for more Western support, suggested an effort by Mr. Zelensky to clean house and to try to reassure Ukraine’s allies that his government would show zero tolerance for graft.

As the war nears the one-year mark, no issue is more critical for Ukraine’s continued survival that the billions of dollars and advanced weaponry provided by Western allies. Russia is gearing up for a new offensive expected in the spring or earlier, and the Ukrainians are counting on Challenger 2 tanks promised by Britain and Bradley Fighting Vehicles pledged by the United States to counter Moscow and launch their own offensives.

But even a whiff of malfeasance could be enough to slow what has been essentially an open spigot of aid. Few are more sensitive to this than Mr. Zelensky, who appears almost daily on video calls with foreign leaders and legislatures dressed in a drab green military shirt always asking for the same thing: more weapons.

In recent days Mr. Zelensky had alluded to the corruption investigations and a coming shake-up in his government. In his nightly address on Sunday, he said he hoped that punishment would be taken as a “signal to all those whose actions or behavior violate the principle of justice,” and added: “There will be no return to what used to be in the past.”

The corruption allegations have also unsettled many Ukrainians, for whom any hint that top officials might be undermining the country’s collective struggle against Russia for their own gain is galling, especially if the corruption involves the military.

Over the weekend, a Ukrainian newspaper reported that the Ministry of Defense had purchased food at inflated prices, including eggs at three times their cost. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called the allegations “absolute nonsense” and the product of “distorted information.”

But on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that Viacheslav Shapovalov, a deputy minister, had “asked to be fired” following the reports. The ministry said in a statement that while the accusations “are unfounded and baseless,” relieving Mr. Shapovalov of his duties would “preserve the trust” of Ukrainians and the country’s international partners.

Still, that it took three days for Mr. Shapovalov to step down raises serious questions about the Ministry of Defense’s commitment to rooting out corruption, said Vitaliy Shabunin, the director of operations for the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Kyiv-based nongovernmental organization.

Also among those dismissed on Tuesday were five governors from regions that have at various points seen intense fighting, including Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The governor of Kyiv was also dismissed but then reassigned to a position within the presidential administration.

The deputy head of Mr. Zelensky’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, resigned amid criticism of his use of the donated G.M. SUV. Mr. Tymoshenko was well known domestically and internationally, often tasked with providing updates on the war. But Ukrainian journalists had raised questions about his lavish lifestyle and use of government resources.

The shake-up began over the weekend, when Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau detained a deputy infrastructure minister who was caught receiving a $400,000 bribe from a company seeking a government contract to provide generators and other equipment.

— Michael Schwirtz ,  Maria Varenikova and Cassandra Vinograd

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The State Department says corruption cases in Ukraine don’t appear to involve U.S. aid.

The corruption accusations that led to a shake-up in Ukraine’s government in recent days do not appear to have involved billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid supplied by the United States, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Biden administration is “not aware that any U.S. assistance was involved,” the spokesman, Ned Price, told reporters at a daily briefing.

Among those removed from their posts were a deputy defense minister and a deputy prosecutor general. In addition, a senior official in Mr. Zelensky’s office resigned.

Longstanding concerns about political corruption in Ukraine have contributed to calls in Congress for restricting American aid to Ukraine, but Mr. Price insisted that American supplies and funds were subject to careful oversight.

“We take extraordinarily seriously our responsibility to ensure appropriate oversight of all forms of U.S. assistance that we’re delivering to Ukraine,” Mr. Price said. He did not provide details on the nature of those efforts, about which U.S. officials have said little.

Even so, Mr. Price acknowledged that devastation caused by the invasion has complicated efforts to track the billions of dollars in weapons, along with economic and humanitarian aid, that Washington has shipped to Kyiv.

“There are challenges associated with the current environment, in which our Ukrainian partners are in the midst of a brutal attack by the Russian Federation,” Mr. Price said. “But we take this commitment seriously nonetheless, and we’re still able to take steps to ensure that accountability.”

Mr. Price noted that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had campaigned in part on an anticorruption platform that drew strong public support in his country. He said the United States welcomed Mr. Zelensky’s “quick and decisive actions” and broader efforts to counter corruption and hold officials accountable when they “fail to meet the obligations and the responsibilities that are entrusted to them.”

Before the outbreak of the war, some analysts and U.S. officials complained that Mr. Zelensky was not moving more aggressively on his agenda to root out corruption.

“We will continue to stand with Ukraine as it works to implement these important anticorruption reforms,” Mr. Price said.

— Michael Crowley

Turkey postpones a key meeting on NATO bids by Finland and Sweden.

Turkey has indefinitely postponed a meeting with Finland and Sweden to discuss their bid to join NATO, Turkish state media reported on Tuesday, amid Turkish anger over recent protests in Stockholm that included the burning of a Quran .

The meeting had been scheduled to take place in Brussels in February.

Before that announcement, Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said that tensions caused by the protests were further delaying Ankara’s approval of NATO membership for his country and for Sweden.

Mr. Haavisto said that the Quran burning by a far-right activist outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm had shaken officials in Ankara, stalling the NATO approval process by “at least weeks.”

Mr. Haavisto raised some eyebrows by suggesting to the broadcaster YLE on Tuesday that Finland might consider seeking membership without Sweden, given Turkey’s objections, but he later clarified his remarks and said the two were in the process together.

“Despite all these complications, Finland’s and Sweden’s joint NATO process will continue,” Mr. Haavisto told a news conference on Tuesday. “We strive to promote it together, to act together so that both countries can have their memberships ratified and we become members at the same time.”

His remarks came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said that Sweden should not count on Turkey’s support for its NATO bid if it did not “show respect to the religious beliefs” of Muslims.

“Those who caused such a disgrace in front of our embassy should not expect any benevolence from us regarding their NATO membership applications,” Mr. Erdogan said on Monday, according to TRT , the Turkish state broadcaster.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine prompted Sweden and Finland to seek membership in NATO, which would grant them alliance protection in the event of a Russian attack.

But joining NATO requires approval by all members, and Turkey has made extensive demands that it says must be met before it will support the inclusion of Sweden and Finland. These include tightening antiterrorism laws and extraditing people Turkey considers to be criminals, mainly Kurdish militants.

While the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said that Finland and Sweden had fulfilled the demands outlined by Turkey, a top aide to Mr. Erdogan suggested earlier this month that it could take more than six months for Sweden to do what is necessary to win the country’s support for its bid to join NATO.

Mr. Erdogan is in a difficult re-election campaign, with a vote expected on May 14. Turkey’s vote on approval is likely to come after its presidential and parliamentary elections; NATO allies have expressed hope that it will be done by the next summit meeting of the alliance in July.

— Ben Hubbard and Johanna Lemola

Two British men went to Soledar. Neither came back.

Two British citizens, Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry, departed from the city of Kramatorsk at 8 a.m. on Jan. 6 and headed east toward the front lines of Ukraine’s war with Russia, Ukrainian police said.

Their mission, according to an aid worker familiar with the matter, was to evacuate an elderly woman in Soledar, a small town where Russian and Ukrainian forces were waging a vicious fight.

They never returned.

Questions lingered about their fate until Tuesday, when Mr. Parry’s family confirmed in a statement released through the British foreign ministry that “our beloved Chrissy” and Mr. Bagshaw had been killed “whilst attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar.”

“His selfless determination in helping the old, young and disadvantaged there has made us and his larger family extremely proud,” the statement said.

The men’s vehicle is believed to have been hit by an artillery shell, though investigations were underway, Mr. Bagshaw’s parents said at a news conference . They had feared such an outcome, they said, but were “very, very proud” of his work.

Mr. Bagshaw, 47, and Mr. Parry, 28, were part of an ad hoc cohort of foreigners with little to no combat experience who helped evacuate civilians from the front lines, acquaintances said. Several of Mr. Parry’s and Mr. Bagshaw’s evacuations were documented by journalists , including Arnaud De Decker, who shared footage of Mr. Parry in Bakhmut days before he went missing.

Their deaths were a stark reminder of the danger facing those whose work has become a lifeline in the Donbas, where many Ukrainians are trapped in some of the worst war zones Europe has seen since the Second World War.

On Jan. 6, the two men “went to some really dangerous address,” said Grzegorz Rybak, a fellow foreign volunteer who worked with both men and lived with Mr. Bagshaw in Kramatorsk for two weeks. “And they did not come back.”

PMC Wagner, a notorious mercenary group fighting on behalf of Russia, claimed a week after their disappearance to have found one of the men’s bodies. The group posted photos on Telegram of what appeared to be their passports, along with a certificate identifying Mr. Parry as a volunteer with the Pavlo Vyshniakov Foundation, a Kyiv-based charity that sends resources including food and medical supplies to civilians, hospitals and military groups. The foundation declined to comment.

Wagner’s claim could not be verified at the time, and Russian state media has since claimed, without evidence, that the men were mercenaries.

The war in Ukraine is a humanitarian quandary. Conditions in some areas are too perilous for residents to stay put, or for many international organizations to allow their staff to venture in, said Abby Stoddard, a humanitarian policy analyst.

So some of the riskiest evacuations are being carried out by independent volunteers — “in other words, the ones who have the least amount of resources to keep people safe,” Ms. Stoddard said.

Bryan Stern, a U.S. veteran who co-founded a humanitarian rescue operation , described front line evacuation efforts in Ukraine as a “free-for-all.” While foreign volunteers came to Ukraine with good intentions, he said, most have “no idea what they’re doing.”

“This is really why this is a sad story,” he said.

Mr. Parry was a software engineer who wanted to travel the world, his family said.

In early January, he told the local BBC station in Cornwall, where he grew up, that he “knew nothing” about Ukraine before the invasion but “became obsessed” with helping. He intended to enlist with foreign fighters, but, having no combat experience, instead bought a van and began working as an evacuation driver last March.

In an Instagram post made days after his arrival, Mr. Parry wrote that he felt apprehensive about a planned journey to Kharkiv because “everyone I have spoken to about it believes there’s a very strong chance of me dying.”

Mr. Bagshaw was a British genetics researcher who was between jobs last spring in Christchurch, New Zealand, when he decided to go to Ukraine, a photojournalist who met him wrote in the New Zealand Herald in October. His family told reporters that he believed “it to be the morally right thing to do.”

Mr. Rybak, who translated for the volunteers, said their ad hoc operation was largely carried out by a small community of English-speakers in Kramatorsk. Neither Mr. Parry nor Mr. Bagshaw spoke Ukrainian or Russian, he said.

Mr. Rybak said Ukrainians would contact local aid workers about relatives near Bakhmut, and their addresses would be relayed to the volunteers, who would drive into the conflict zone to evacuate them, often in donated or crowd-funded vehicles. The trips were unpredictable, Mr. Rybak said, with addresses sometimes vacant or residents resisting evacuation.

The men had plans for after the war. Mr. Parry had a partner he wanted to marry, Mr. Rybak recalled, and Mr. Bagshaw wanted to carry on with his scientific career.

“They wanted to live,” he said.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.

— Anushka Patil

An advocacy group estimates that only 1 in 5 of Wagner’s recruits remain active in Russian forces.

Out of 50,000 mercenaries — many of them prison inmates — recruited by the private paramilitary group Wagner to fight alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine, only about 10,000 remain actively serving, according to a new estimate by Russia Behind Bars , a prisoner rights organization.

The organization’s founder, Olga Romanova, said in an interview on Monday with TV Rain , an independent Russian broadcaster based in the Netherlands, that according to her organization’s data, the other 40,000 recruits have either deserted or surrendered, or been injured or killed.

Wagner’s mercenaries have played a large role in the battle for eastern Ukraine and have also carried out military operations in Africa and elsewhere. Human rights groups have said that the Kremlin is relying on the extralegal use of prisoners to replenish its decimated military.

In September, a visual investigation by The Times revealed footage that appeared to be Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Russian businessman and close associate of President Vladimir V. Putin who founded Wagner, promising convicts release from prison in return for a six-month combat tour in Russia’s war against Ukraine. In the video, he also warns that any who sign up and try to desert will be shot.

The estimates by Russia Behind Bars could not be independently verified, but the overall number of fighters roughly aligns with a late December assessment shared by John Kirby , a spokesman for the National Security Council. Mr. Kirby said Wagner had about 50,000 people fighting in Ukraine at that time, including 10,000 contractors and about 40,000 inmates recruited from Russian prisons.

In a statement earlier this month, the British Defense Ministry said that Russia was “highly likely resorting” to convict labor in an effort to meet wartime production demands.

On Friday, the White House said the United States was designating the paramilitary group as a significant transnational criminal organization , a move that will expand the number of nations and institutions that can be prevented from doing business with the company.

At a news briefing, Mr. Kirby told reporters, “Our message to any company that is considering providing support to Wagner is simply this: Wagner is a criminal organization that is committing widespread human rights abuses.”

— Lauren McCarthy

Journalist killings were up 50 percent last year, driven by coverage of the war.

Killings of journalists and news media workers were up almost 50 percent in 2022, according to a report from the Committee to Protect Journalists published on Tuesday , making it the deadliest year for the press since 2018.

At least 67 members of the press were killed last year, the organization found, an increase driven by the war in Ukraine and an uptick in killings in Latin America.

The committee said 15 journalists were killed in Ukraine in 2022, during the months that followed Russia’s invasion of the country in late February. Of those, 13 journalists were killed while engaged in news gathering and reporting, the report said, and the organization is investigating the two other deaths.

In Mexico, the deadliest country in the world for journalists in recent years, 13 were killed in 2022, the second-highest toll.

The findings are lower than figures released this month by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, which said that 86 journalists and media workers were killed globally last year — at an average of one journalist killed every four days.

“After several years of consecutive declines, the steep rise in the number of journalists killed in 2022 is alarming,” the director-general of UNESCO said in a statement. “Authorities must step up their efforts to stop these crimes and ensure their perpetrators are punished, because indifference is a major factor in this climate of violence.”

Most journalist deaths in Ukraine came in the early stages of the war, the Committee to Protect Journalists said, and the group has not documented any work-related killings in the country since the death of a French cameraman, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff , in late May.

Speaking to reporters in Kyiv at the time, France’s foreign minister noted that Mr. Leclerc-Imhoff “was doing his job,” calling his death “a tragedy that in reality is a crime.”

The situation on the ground in Ukraine remains perilous for journalists, the report said. Members of the media are frequently at risk while covering the conflict, some have been injured by shelling and others say that they have been targeted by Russian forces.

Ukrainians have donated nearly $500 million to the country’s military.

KYIV, Ukraine — Among the éclairs and macarons at the pastry counter in Honey cafe in Kyiv are small, glazed cakes with candy lettering on top spelling out “ZSU,” the letters that denote the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Part of the proceeds from every cake sold at the cafe goes to the Ukrainian Army. It is just one tiny contribution, which is part of a widespread trend in Ukraine that sees businesses and individuals donating to the army.

Western governments have provided air defense systems and precision and long-range artillery that have helped the Ukrainian military to shift the tide on the battlefield.

At home, Ukrainians fund the military through taxes, with about 50 percent of the budget now allocated for defense. On top of that, individual donations are another source, and one that has swelled over the past year.

A poll last fall by Suspilne Media, Ukraine’s public broadcaster, found that about a quarter of all Ukrainians, or 24 percent, said they had donated money directly to the military during the war.

Over the past year, 22.3 billion hryvnia, or about $500 million, was donated directly to the army by businesses and individuals, according to Ukraine’s central bank. That far outpaced charitable contributions inside Ukraine for humanitarian assistance, which totaled 920 million hryvnia, or $20 million.

Nongovernmental groups that collect donations and buy equipment that is donated to the army, such as armored vests, night vision goggles or infrared scopes, are also a significant source of support.

One of the largest such organizations, Povernys Zhyvym, or Come Back Alive, has collected 5.3 billion hryvnia, or $132 million for the military.

Another, the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, has raised 3.5 billion hryvnia, or $87 million. Fund-raisers like this foundation often raise money for specific purchases, such as a Bayraktar TB2 attack drone for the air force.

Several groups raise money for the military, or for weapons procurement, by selling personalized messages on bombs or artillery shells. Punisher, a company making long-range attack drones, has a website that allows people to put messages on bombs for a fee, which goes toward funding development and production of the weapons.

On the larger end of the scale of donations from individuals, the commanding general in the Ukrainian army, General Valery Zaluzhny, this month donated $1 million to the military from an inheritance he received from a Ukrainian American, Gregory Stepanets, according to the Stepanets family. The military’s press service confirmed the donation.

And on the smaller end, restaurants with electronic menus offer customers the opportunity to donate small sums to the military while paying their bills.

Yurii Shyvala contributed reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.

— Andrew E. Kramer

The Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight than ever, in part because of the war in Ukraine.

Humanity is closer than ever to the end of the world.

That was the dire warning this week from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , which, since 1947, has been estimating how close the world is to ending by stating starkly how many “minutes to midnight” remain on its signature Doomsday Clock.

The clock on Tuesday was set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight it has ever reached, according to the Bulletin, a nonprofit organization and publication.

The Doomsday Clock had been set at 100 seconds to midnight since 2020. But the clock was moved forward this year “largely but not exclusively” because of “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation,” the Bulletin said in a statement.

A number of other issues played a role in moving the Doomsday Clock forward, the Bulletin said, including the effects of climate change, “unabated” disinformation online and an ongoing threat of infectious disease outbreaks.

Rachel Bronson, the Bulletin’s president and chief executive, said in the statement that the decision to move the clock closer to midnight had not been taken lightly.

“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Dr. Bronson said. “The U.S. government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the clock.”

The Bulletin’s science and security board meets twice a year to discuss current events and determine whether the clock needs to be reset. The board includes several scientists and experts in nuclear technology and climate science. To decide the clock’s timing, the board looks at data, such as the number of nuclear weapons in the world, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the acidity of the oceans and the rate at which sea levels are rising.

The Doomsday Clock and its annual warnings about the imminency of annihilation have generated some skepticism over the years and prompted debate over its purpose.

Brad Evans , a professor of political violence at the University of Bath in Britain, said on Tuesday that the clock is “a frighteningly symbolic image for a world that’s continued to live within the shadow of annihilation.”

“Whilst this image has come to shape our politics — we do after all live in catastrophic times where the future looks like an endemic terrain of crisis — there are a number of problems with this particularly symbolic attempt to calculate the time that remains,” Professor Evans said.

Professor Evans noted that, during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, “when the world was perilously close, arguably the closest it has ever been, to extinction,” the clock did not change.

The Bulletin has said that the clock’s hands were not changed during the crisis because “too little was known at the time about the circumstances of the standoff or what the outcome would be.”

The Bulletin has said that the clock “is not a forecasting tool” and that it does not predict the future. The clock is a symbol of threats to humanity, the Bulletin said, and each second does not represent how many years or decades the world is from apocalypse.

The first Doomsday Clock was set arbitrarily. Martyl Langsdorf, an artist who was asked to create a design for the cover of the 1947 edition of the Bulletin, decided to set the original clock at seven minutes to midnight because “it looked good to my eye,” according to the Bulletin.

The farthest the clock has been set from midnight was 17 minutes, in 1991 at the end of the Cold War.

— Jesus Jiménez

• Product Management

MoSCoW Method: How to Make the Best of Prioritization

Prioritization played a significant role in the success of most feature-rich apps, such as Slack and GitLab . Initially, they offered a limited set of functionalities that were essential for their users. With time, this set was supplemented with other features. Railsware is going to share its own style of prioritizing and show you how we use the MoSCoW method to get long lists of tasks done.

Why do you need prioritization?

As a rule, the daily routine includes a bunch of tasks. Ideally, you’ll have enough time and energy to cover all of them – but it just might happen that the number of tasks is immense and the resources available are not in abundance. That’s where prioritization comes in.

This term denotes a process to filter what you have to do in order of importance or relevance. For example, if you’re building a house, you are not likely to begin with the roof or walls until your foundation is done. Of course, things are much more complicated in the web development industry, and this example cannot reveal the full-scope value of setting priorities.

Complex projects and numerous startups make use of advanced prioritization techniques. These usually consist of frameworks known for specific requirements or rules that improve decision-making. Success in prioritization often determines the success of the company itself. Getting caught up in pending and undone tasks is a straight road to failure. That’s why businesses pay particular attention to which prioritization methods to use. There are quite a few of them, but they all have some common characteristics, such as orientation towards input (internal or external) and quantitative or qualitative tools.

By the way, we are hiring. Check out our job openings.

External orientation means that you need to involve stakeholders outside the development team to set priorities, while the internally-oriented methods can be executed purely in-house. Quantitative methods entail a deeper focus on numeric metrics in prioritization, and the qualitative one rests on expert opinions, votings, classifications to a greater extent. In view of this, they are traditionally divided into the following categories:

You can read about different Agile prioritization techniques in detail here . If you need, we’ve also gone more in depth on what Agile product development is in a separate article.

Railsware prefers a technique developed by Dai Clegg way back in 1994. Initially, it was named MSCW, but two o’s were added to improve pronounceability. This also made it sound like the capital city of Russia. Let’s see how it works.

What is MoSCoW?

To understand the gist of the MoSCoW method, we need to look at its origin – the dynamic systems development method (DSDM). It is a framework for Agile project management tailored by practitioners with the aim of improving quality in rapid app development (RAD) processes. A hallmark of DSDM projects is strictly determined quality, costs, and time at an early stage. In view of this, all the project tasks have to be allocated by importance. The need for managing priorities triggered the invention of a specialized prioritization mechanism.

This mechanism was implemented via MoSCoW – a simple yet powerful solution to set priorities both with and without timeboxes. However, it shows better efficiency if you have a certain deadline for a task, feature, subfeature, functionality, etc. The framework is applicable to all levels of project prioritization from top to bottom, as well as to all functions and focus areas.

The MoSCoW abbreviation (except for the o’s) is carved with first letters of the priority categories it works with. These are Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves and Won’t-haves. And that’s how you can define which task falls into which category.

Prioritization rules

These rules or requirements estimate the importance of any task/process/feature/etc. Each company or work team uses its own approach to setting requirements, but, in general, they do not differentiate much and look as follows.

These are top-priority requirements, which shape the foundation of the major pipeline. Avoiding them means blocking the entire project or further activities. As a rule, product ideation depends entirely on defining must-haves using such pointers as ‘required for launch’, ‘required for safety’, ‘required for validation’, ‘required to deliver a viable solution’, etc.

• Can we move forward with the project if this task is undone? – if NO , it’s MUST .

Should-haves

This type of requirement is of secondary priority. Should-haves do not affect the launch and, traditionally, are considered important but not crucial. They differ from must-haves by the availability of a workaround. Therefore, the failure of a should-have task is unlikely to cause the failure of the entire project. If you’re building a product, it will still be usable even if these requirements aren’t met.

• Will we move forward with the project if this task is done a bit later? – if YES , it SHOULD .

Could-haves

The next requirement is less important than the two previous ones but still wanted. If we compare could-haves with should-haves, the former is defined by a lower degree of adverse effect if omitted. Traditionally, the third-level priority requirements in the Agile framework MoSCoW are realized if a project is not highly constrained in time. Within the product development, we can call them low-cost tweaks.

• Can we sacrifice this task till the deadline? – if YES , it’s COULD .

Won’t-haves

You can also encounter this type of requirement under the name of would-have or wish-to-have, but these variants are not recognized by the Wiki . However, regardless of the chosen name, these requirements define the lowest priority for tasks that are unviable to implement with a particular budget and deadline. Won’t-have does not mean a complete rejection of something. It envisions reintroduction under favorable conditions in the future.

• Can we get back to it when things are going better? – if YES , it’s WON’T .

In search of the perfect tools and techniques, our team often modifies some well-known approaches and tailors them to our needs. This constant search and improvement led us to brand new product ideation and decision-making framework: BRIDGeS . BRIDGeS is a flexible approach for multi-context analysis suitable for building effective product strategies, solving operational and strategic problems, making day-to-day decisions , and more. Find out how to use BRIDGeS and what advantages BRIDGeS can bring to your team .  

MoSCoW is another tool that we modified to make it even more flexible and versatile. Below, we share our findings to help your team nail prioritization in a more efficient way.

How the Railsware team modified MoSCoW

The main difference between the classical MoSCoW and our version of this technique is that we added another level of prioritization within such groups as Must, Should, and Could. Each of these groups of requirements got another 4 complexity categories :

• 3 – most heavy and unclear requirements
• 2 – heavy complexity
• 1 – normal complexity
• 0 – easiest and the most urgent tasks within the group

This way, when a requirement gets, let’s say, the priority Must, we can also add a numeric matter to the letter M. For instance, our sprint can include several M2 tasks, one M1 task, and three S1 tasks.

When the task is marked with the priority “3” (M3/S3/C3), it most likely means that its scope is too large and complex to be fulfilled fast. You need to decompose it into smaller, manageable chunks and prioritize them as well. This way, from one M3 requirement, you can get a bunch of M2, S1, and C1 tasks, for example.

Sometimes, M, S, C, and W letters are not enough and we may also need an Urgent Must (UM) mark. UMs are the most critical things, such as hotfixes, bug fixes, and patches, which block the work of the whole team. From our experience, we recommend you to fix these tasks ASAP, as they hinder the team’s productive work. So if you set any task as UM, you should ignore all other tasks until the UM task is fixed. In normal situations, your bug tracking system shouldn’t have UMs.

Why do Urgent Must tasks appear? Often, UMs are the Must-haves that your team ignored before the deployment phase or missed during the QA phase. Pay attention to these tricky cases, and try to solve them before they become an obstacle.

Advantages of the modified MoSCoW approach

When we got an additional level of priorities within the MoSCoW system, we felt the following improvements:

• No need to run several rounds of task prioritization . When you have six Must-have requirements, you can’t understand which of them are the most critical or complex and run another round of prioritization. Our approach allows us to set priorities and clearly understand the importance and complexity of each task from the first round.
• Saved time . The ability to set all priorities at once saves time for all the team members who take part in the prioritization process.
• More balanced sprints. A sprint that consists only of Must-have tasks has little chance of being fulfilled. Must-haves are usually more complex requirements that guarantee the viability of a product, meaning their implementation takes more time and concentration from a developer. To dilute high-importance work with some low-hanging tasks, you can add some S0, C0, or S1 tasks to the sprint so that users get a bit more full-featured functionality of the main Must-have flows.
• More pleasant products for end users . While M3 and M2 tasks are usually crucial things necessary for the product viability, Could- and Should-haves may represent more pleasant things (changing a theme, additional filters, notifications, etc.) 

How to use MoSCoW

Everything looks simple in theory, but is it in practice? Let’s check out how a traditional MoSCoW analysis of functionality prioritizing works through the example of a regular web application. As a sample, we’re going to use basic functions taken from one of the Railsware products .

List all tasks

Prioritize cards.

Based on particular requirements for budget and time, we can single out the most fundamental features to be implemented in the minimum viable product . After the priority analysis, we’ve got the following:

• A user MUST sign up.
• A user MUST log in.
• A user MUST reset password.
• A user MUST open a time-tracking page.

The top-priority tasks are followed by important, though not vital,functionalities for the app. These are:

• A user SHOULD choose the billing system.
• A user SHOULD delete an account.
• A user SHOULD choose time-tracking options.

The evolution of the app does foresee its availability on mobile devices. However, this task is only nice-to-have at this point.

• A user COULD install a mobile app version.

And now the least-priority feature. It aims at enhancing the user experience once the app is on track. Theme selectability is definitely not what we’re going to make now, so this feature is saved for later.

• A user WON’T choose the app’s visual theme THIS TIME.

Restructure cards according to their priority

This step allows you to see the quantitative ratio of high and low priority tasks.

The most difficult thing about prioritization is to be icily intelligent and focus on the essential tasks to be done. Otherwise, you can get into the EVERYTHING-IS-MUST trap , according to which any feature like the billing system option or mobile app availability turns into the must-have.

And that’s why the MoSCoW Agile method is cool. It allows you to define a basic feature set, which has top priority and emphasizes that you do not need to abandon anything. The healthy balance of must-haves + should-haves is 50% of the entire scope. All (or almost all) of the tasks will be implemented later but in the order of their importance to your goal. The goal of this example is to build an MVP , and the categorization above shows the expected progress of the app’s functionality.

How to use modified MoSCoW

We took the same example with all the tasks listed above to showcase how we apply our version of this prioritization technique.

Set priorities using the extended MoSCoW model

The main priority (Must, Should, Could, and Won’t) are still the same, however, we dived deeper to make a more precise priority estimation of each task. Here’s what we came up with:

• “A user can sign up” got an M2 mark. It is a complex task, but it’s not critically urgent.
• “A user can log in” got an M1 mark. The task is important but not that complex.
• “A user can reset password” got an M1 mark. 
• “A user can choose the billing system” got an S3 mark. It’s an important feature, but its scope is large and should be split.
• “A user can delete the account” got an S2 mark. 
• “A user can open a time-tracking page” got an M2 mark. 
• “A user can choose time-tracking options” got an S1 mark. This is a low-hanging feature that can be taken to a sprint to balance the workload.  
• “A user can install a mobile app version” got a C3 mark. This epic is too large to be implemented in one sprint. Its scope should be split into smaller tasks and prioritized as well.
• “A user can choose the app’s visual theme” got the same priority mark – Won’t, which we do not decompose.

Our modified approach provides a better understanding of the task’s priority and complexity and shows the parts that need to be reconsidered. This way, it’s easier to plan a balanced sprint, taking only tasks that can be implemented (all cards with the priority “3” should be split into smaller tasks) and some small tasks that allow your team to reduce the workload. 

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MoSCoW pros and cons

The framework is quite popular among Agile projects with fixed timeboxes since it allows for managing the requirements for a specific release of a product. This prioritization method has proved its efficiency and reliability within our company as well, and we do recommend it to our clients. However, it is not perfect of course, and an unbiased look can reveal some flaws associated with MoSCoW technique. Let’s take a look at its strengths and weaknesses.

MoSCoW prioritization at Railsware

Let’s take a look at how we set priorities within the company.

Product development: we rest upon a roadmap where the product features and the order of their implementation are specified. As a rule, we leverage MoSCoW to define which feature goes first, which comes second, and so on, taking into account their importance and the interdependence of features. Must-haves and Should-haves are meant for the product release. Could-haves and Won’t-haves are postponed for the future.

HR and recruitment: prioritization rests upon such requirements as the demand for particular expertise, budget availability, timebox (how urgently we need this expertise), and so on. We leverage the similar patterns of setting priorities in other focus areas including on-boarding, branding, marketing, etc.

The biggest challenge of the methodology is that all stakeholders must be familiar with enough context to estimate features correctly. Besides, stakeholders that represent different functions like sales, development, marketing have their own vision of setting priorities, which not always works towards correct prioritization. Investors usually treat all features as Must-haves from their broad-based perspective and need them done without any respect of their implementation order.

Railsware has a Holacratic organizational structure . We take advantage of collective leadership based on the RASCI model and make decisions on different things including prioritization through voting. Team members can choose from several options like really want, want and don’t want. Each option implies a particular point. The option with the biggest point total has the highest priority. For small contexts, a responsible role (team leader, project manager, etc.) can be in charge of setting priorities on his/her own.

MoSCoW alternatives you may find useful for your project

Railsware uses Agile framework MoSCoW heavily and is pleased with it. However, it does not mean that we are closed to other solutions. Besides, a good product manager must consider the key product metrics and build the prioritization according to them. So here are some other worthwhile techniques that you may benefit from.

With this framework, you can define how happy the users are with product features. The Kano Model rests on a questionnaire, which is used to learn users’ attitude to a particular feature (like, expect, dislike, neutral, etc.). Visually, the model can be expressed via a two-dimensional diagram where the vertical axis is responsible for the level of user satisfaction (from totally frustrated to incredibly happy) and the horizontal one shows either how much was invested in the feature (Investment), how well was it implemented (Implementation), or how much users benefit from it (Functionality).

Categorization of requirements includes four types that are prioritized in the following order: must-be, performance, attractive, and indifferent. Must-bes are some basic things that users generally expect. Performance (also known as One-Dimensional) requirements are the golden mean and allow you to increase the satisfaction level. Attractive requirements are those that improve user experience. These are nice-to-haves or could-haves according to MoSCoW. Indifferent ones are less prioritized and sometimes even entirely omitted.

Value vs. Complexity

This prioritization technique is one of the simplest. You can encounter it under the names of Value vs. Cost or Value vs. Effort as well. The method feels intuitive and is aimed at maximizing value delivery. Estimation of features’ importance rests upon how much effort is invested to implement them and how much value they will bring. Here is how it looks visually:

Wrapping up

The art of setting priorities shows the efficiency of your workflow. Railsware’s choice is the MoSCoW project management framework, which has made a good showing in versatile functionalities and products. However, it might be less useful for immense projects with multiple teams involved in the pipeline. We advise you to find an effective prioritization solution that fits your unique needs, and to always avoid getting caught up in countless pending tasks.

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Interest rates remain the same for the third quarter of 2024

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IR-2024-138, May 9, 2024

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates will remain the same for the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2024.

For individuals, the rate for overpayments and underpayments will be 8% per year, compounded daily. Here is a complete list of the new rates:

• 8% for overpayments (payments made in excess of the amount owed), 7% for corporations.
• 5.5% for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000.
• 8% for underpayments (taxes owed but not fully paid).
• 10% for large corporate underpayments.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, the rate of interest is determined on a quarterly basis. For taxpayers other than corporations, the overpayment and underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points.

Generally, in the case of a corporation, the underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points and the overpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 2 percentage points. The rate for large corporate underpayments is the federal short-term rate plus 5 percentage points. The rate on the portion of a corporate overpayment of tax exceeding $10,000 for a taxable period is the federal short-term rate plus one-half (0.5) of a percentage point.

The interest rates announced today are computed from the federal short-term rate determined during April 2024. See the revenue ruling for details.

Revenue Ruling 2024-11 PDF announcing the rates of interest will appear in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-24, dated June 10, 2024.

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