Body of Knowledge · Techniques and Models
Cost of delay
The value lost for each unit of time a piece of work remains unshipped. Sequencing by cost of delay, rather than by effort, age or how loudly it is advocated, is the economic core of prioritisation.
Evidence grade: practice A widely adopted practitioner model with clear provenance.
Use it when
Ordering a queue; arguing a priority call; exposing the real price of "just one more thing first".
Where it stops working
Most delay costs are estimates. Treat them as explicit assumptions to argue over, because false precision dresses opinion up as arithmetic.
Where the standard uses it
- DE-1Prioritisation under constraintSequencing, trade-offs, saying no.
Sources
- Donald G. Reinertsen. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development. Celeritas Publishing, 2009. In the bibliography
Used alongside it
- Portfolio governance practice
- Trade-off transparency practice
- Urgent versus important practice
- Work-in-progress limits and flow practice
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Cost of delay. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.cost-of-delay). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/cost-of-delay