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Anil Thapa
What would this work change?

A review from the exercise

The evidence may be arriving after the choice

The starting point when question three is answered "the choice has been made, and no point to reconsider it is agreed" or "I don't know yet".

Six questions about one decision from the reader's own work: what it would change, who makes the call, when evidence could still reach it, what evidence it rests on, what the next step displaces, and what is missing to take it. The first question answered with an open condition is where the result starts, and this review is one of the seven starting points.

Question 03 · The timing

When could new evidence still change it?

  1. In placeBefore a known decision that has not been made yet.
  2. In placeAt a known recurring review.
  3. Starts hereThe choice has been made, and no point to reconsider it is agreed.
  4. Starts hereI don't know yet.

Where a part below depends on the answer, each passage opens with its answer in bold. Find yours.

What the answer establishes

The choice has been made, and no point to reconsider it is agreed. The decision has been made and nothing has been agreed that would reopen it. Evidence arriving now cannot change it. It can confirm it, contradict it or inform the next one, and which of those the work is for has to be said out loud.

I don't know yet. When the choice is made, or whether it already has been, is not known. The date on the work is a delivery date. The date that matters is the last moment at which evidence could still change the decision, and nobody has named it.

The question to ask next

The choice has been made, and no point to reconsider it is agreed. Ask the owner: is there a condition or a review point that would reopen this, and what would it take? If there is one, that is the deadline the work now serves. If there is none, ask what the work is for. "To see whether we were right" is a legitimate answer, and it is a different piece of work.

I don't know yet. Ask the owner when the choice will be made, and whether it already has been. Then ask what they would need to see, and by when, for it to come out differently. The second answer sets the deadline. The first only sets the meeting.

The small step

The choice has been made, and no point to reconsider it is agreed. Re-scope the work to the next decision its result could reach: the review that could reopen this one, or the next choice of the same kind. Say so in writing to the person who asked, with the original scope and the new one side by side, and let them choose.

I don't know yet. Put a date in the sentence that describes the decision and take it to the owner for correction. A wrong date gets corrected. A missing one gets replaced by the delivery deadline, and the two are not the same date.

What it costs

Some of the work already done was for a decision that is closed, and that cost is sunk whoever carries it. Re-scoping can read as the team having been late, which it may have been. The alternative is finishing evidence for a decision nobody can act on, which costs the same and teaches nothing.

What changes the advice

If the owner names a review point, the open question becomes whether the evidence can be ready and checked by then, which is question four. If there is no review point and no next decision, propose stopping the work, with the reason, and let the owner decide whether a report is still wanted.

Answer the six questions

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