Last Responsible Moment
Apply to the current workflow without restarting it or expanding scope.
Bring learning forward, not commitment. Preserve options without stalling delivery.
Decision triage
Consider the next increment, reversibility, cost of delay, expected learning,
and required lead time.
- Decide now: the choice is necessary to move forward or define verifiable
behavior; waiting disproportionately increases cost or risk, or eliminates an
important option.
- Investigate now: an uncertainty could invalidate the approach. Seek evidence
in code, documents, measurements, or minimal experiments without requiring a
definitive commitment.
- Choose provisionally: to move forward, adopt the simplest alternative when
reversal is cheap, no important option is lost, and authority has been delegated.
Do not invent requirements or business rules.
- Defer deliberately: keep an unnecessary choice open when the cost of waiting
is acceptable, especially when relevant learning is still ahead. Record only the
question, reason, and observable trigger; allow lead time to investigate,
implement, and validate.
Boundaries
Also defer branches that depend on deferred decisions, except for independently
relevant risks. Out of scope does not imply a future commitment.
Prefer evidence over preference questions. When user input is needed, present one
decision at a time, a recommendation, and why the decision is needed now.
YAGNI: preserve ease of change, not speculative abstractions, configuration,
or infrastructure. Do not confuse importance with irreversibility, or deferring
a solution with deferring investigation.
Distinguish decisions, hypotheses, and deferrals in existing documents. Record
only what affects continuity; do not create exhaustive inventories or an ADR for
every pending issue. Reassess commitments and triggers as new evidence emerges.
Stopping criterion
In planning and questioning, replace exhaustive exploration of the decision tree
with readiness of the next increment: clear, executable, and verifiable, with no
hidden business assumptions or unaddressed material risks.
End deliberation once this criterion is met. Proceed within existing
authorization. Communicate only relevant adjustments and blockers; do not turn
this skill into another planning ceremony.