Time Core · Contingency Planning · Module
Decision 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.
The idea
How it works
The decision point is the deadline minus the fallback’s lead time. After it, continuing is not a choice but the only remaining option.
Setting it in advance is what converts a delay from something that happens into something that is decided about, and it is the single most useful thing in this object.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Work backwards from the fallback
Deadline minus lead time. That date is when the decision has to be taken.
- 02
Define what would trigger the switch
A measurable state at that date, agreed beforehand, so the call is not made on optimism.
- 03
Put it in the calendar
A decision point nobody has diarised is a decision point that passes.
- 04
Make the call
On the date, on the agreed criterion. Deferring it is a decision to continue.
One level in
The components of decision points
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Deferring a decision point is a decision to continue. It just does not feel like one.
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.
LearnBuffers
Reserve held deliberately and visibly rather than hidden inside individual estimates, where it is consumed without anyone noticing.
LearnThe fallback plan
What is done instead, prepared far enough in advance that it remains available when it is needed.
Learn