What is Cost of Delay?

Cost of Delay (CoD) is a metric that reflects the economic losses or missed opportunities arising from a delay in implementing a task, feature, or project.

Simply put, it is the cost of not doing something on time.

In product management and task prioritization, CoD helps understand how important it is to complete work faster to maximize profit or minimize losses.

For example, if delaying the release of a new feature leads to losing customers or reducing revenue, then the CoD will be high.

Using CoD allows decision-making on which tasks to prioritize based on the financial impact of the delay.