What's important about prioritizing requirements?

Not all requirements are equally urgent and valuable. Prioritizing requirements is a delicate but essential step. For example, if you're creating a Request for Proposal (RFP), or choosing a vendor, you'll need to weigh the requirements with care, to help the business and vendor understand which requirements are most important, and which are less so. Some requirements will be critical to certain users, but less valuable to others; and some will be essential to the success of the solution, while others will have less impact. Even if your business stakeholders hold competing priorities, your experience and knowledge may enable you to help the business clearly prioritize the requirements. Let's say you've conducted a careful stakeholder analysis, clearly defined the requirements categories, and carefully traced the detailed requirements back to the highest-level requirements (project objectives, business goals, vision requirements, etc.). You're now in a position to help ensure that the highest-priority ("must-have") requirements are fully explored and delivered.