Cost of delay is the numerator, and it is not a price
Cost of Delay (CoD) is the numerator in WSJF: the value lost by delaying or not doing a job for a period of time, relative to other jobs. In SAFe it is estimated from user and business value, time criticality, and risk reduction or opportunity enablement.
Why it is like this
Most prioritisation arguments are really arguments about cost of delay conducted without naming it. Decomposing it into three comparable components makes the disagreement visible — people turn out to disagree about time criticality, not about value.
Not to be confused with
A financial figure. It is a relative estimate, not money; three components are summed rather than multiplied; and risk reduction or opportunity enablement is a full third of it, which is how architectural and enabler work survives against features.
In practice
Drop the risk-reduction term and the architectural runway never gets built, because it has no user value and no deadline. That omission is extremely common.
Source: SAFe Glossary (Scaled Agile, Inc.) — Cost of Delay. Read on .
SAFe® and Scaled Agile Framework® are registered trade marks of Scaled Agile, Inc. ytyk.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by Scaled Agile, Inc. These cards are independent commentary written in our own words; no SAFe text, graphic or Big Picture is reproduced here.
Say it back Check yourself
Name the three components SAFe uses to estimate cost of delay, and say what happens to a backlog if the third is dropped.
Answer out loud or in writing first, then open the points below.
The points a good answer makes
- User and business value
- Time criticality
- Risk reduction and/or opportunity enablement
- Without the third, enabler and architectural work never outranks features and the runway is never built
The third term is the one that exists specifically to let work with no immediate user value compete.