By prioritizing the stories in the backlog we’re supposed to do it by business value or ROI (value / cost). I like to also add the risk inherent in the user story and use it as a factor to decide on prioritization.

Said in a different way, the group of stories with greater ROI can be divided into more risky stories and less risky stories. In particular I prefer to first address those at high risk because I see agile methodologies a great tool for risk mitigation. If the risky stories are left or postponed for a later time, we wouldn’t be mitigated any risks.

Just thinking out loud because of a procrastination video I saw on YouTube.

Procrastination

Procrastination refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.[1] There are three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.[2]

Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as societal disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder.

Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination

Bigger procrastination examples are those deep analysis and design phases of traditional project management, also known as Analysis-Paralysis, but this is a topic  for another post. (procrastinating)… ;)