Separate Known, Unknown, and Assumed
Do not let facts, questions, and guesses share one undifferentiated requirements list.
Unknowns
The question
Which statements are evidence, questions, or temporary guesses?
Do this
- Known means supported by a source or observation.
- Unknown means a decision is waiting for an answer.
- Assumed means work proceeds with a provisional answer and named risk.
Example
- Known: the provider sends webhooks. Unknown: whether delivery is retried. Assumed: retries can arrive out of order until the provider documentation is checked.
Ask next
- ?What is the source?
- ?Which unknown blocks a decision?
- ?Which assumption is costly enough to verify now?