Time Core · Contingency Planning · Module
Buffers
Reserve held deliberately and visibly rather than hidden inside individual estimates, where it is consumed without anyone noticing.
The idea
How it works
Padding every task means every task expands to fill its padding, and the aggregate reserve is consumed before anyone notices it existed.
A single visible buffer at the end is smaller than the sum of the individual pads and is actually available, because its consumption is visible.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Estimate without padding, then add one buffer
Aggregate reserve is smaller and more effective than distributed padding.
- 02
Make buffer consumption visible
How much has been used against how much of the work is done. This is the earliest available warning.
- 03
Protect it explicitly
A buffer that is treated as available time is not a buffer. Someone has to be able to say no.
- 04
Size it from history
The slippage ratio, rather than a conventional percentage which is either too small or arbitrary.
One level in
The components of buffers
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Buffer consumed against work completed is the earliest warning a project produces, and it is rarely tracked.
The other modules in contingency planning
Slippage
Where plans actually slip, by how much and why — established from history rather than from the assumption that this time will be different.
LearnThe fallback plan
What is done instead, prepared far enough in advance that it remains available when it is needed.
LearnDecision points
When the choice between continuing and changing course has to be taken — derived from the lead time of the alternatives rather than from the deadline.
Learn