Which components make up Cost of Delay (CoD)?

• A. Business value, Time criticality, Risk reduction
• B. Business value, Time criticality, Cost to deliver
• C. Business value, Time criticality, Risk exposure
• D. Time criticality, Risk reduction, Customer impact

Answer: (A)

Cost of Delay measures the economic impact of not delivering a feature sooner, and it is built from three factors: business value, time criticality, and risk reduction/opportunity enablement. Business value captures the expected value to users and the business; time criticality reflects how urgency or market timing affects that value; and risk reduction or opportunity enablement captures how delivering now reduces risk or enables future opportunities. The combination of these three components gives a single CoD value that feeds the WSJF calculation (Cost of Delay divided by job size) to help prioritize work. Therefore, the option that includes business value, time criticality, and risk reduction aligns with how CoD is defined in SAFe. Choices that include costs to deliver, risk exposure, or customer impact alone don’t represent the CoD factors used in WSJF.