A system and method is disclosed for prioritizing requests received from multiple requesters for presentation to a shared resource. The system includes logic that implements multiple priority schemes. This logic may be programmably configured to associate each of the requesters with any of the priority schemes. The priority scheme that is associated with the requester controls how that requester submits requests to the shared resource. The requests that have been submitted by any of the requesters in this manner are then processed in a predetermined order. This order is established using an absolute priority assigned to each of the requesters. This order may further be determined by assigning one or more requesters a priority that is relative to another requester. The absolute and relative priority assignments are programmable.