A means to deal with inherent uncertainty in software projects by delaying the final decision. The project is broken into an early phase that focuses on gathering requirements, addressing major risks, and project planning, and a later phase that completes the project if the first phase’s outcome is favorable. The final decision on whether to do the full project is deferred from the point when the uncertainties are the greatest (the beginning) to a point where the uncertainties are significantly reduced (the end of the first phase).