Work Is Stalled by Undecided Customer Specifications: Agree on Conditions for Starting

Specifications are still undecided, but the deadline is approaching. Should you wait for the customer's answers or move ahead on assumptions? Either choice carries a cost.

Do not treat every open item as a reason to stop all work. Identify which decision blocks which task. Separate assumptions you can reverse from conditions that would be costly to change later. The following is a practical proposal for commissioned work in which specifications are developed with the customer.

Give each open item an impact and a decision owner

Record the decision required, the affected task, the decision owner, the response deadline, and the impact of a later change. Make clear whether the decision belongs to your organization or the customer.

If asking for a specification does not produce an answer, ask first about the work the customer wants to accomplish and what would count as an acceptable result. Is information missing? Is internal agreement unresolved? Are there no alternatives to compare? Each calls for different decision material.

The U.S. NIST Baldrige Criteria Commentary discusses customer requirements, stakeholders, and process cycle time in product, service, and process design.[1] It does not authorize the start of an individual project. The classification below is a practical proposal informed by those considerations.

Stop, proceed on an agreed assumption, or decide later

Discuss three categories with the customer.

Decisions required before starting. These include safety, legal requirements, technical feasibility, and processing that is difficult to reverse. The appropriate specialists should determine these conditions. Sales pressure is not a reason to skip them.

Decisions that permit an agreed assumption. Specify the assumption, the work it permits, and the cost and schedule implications of a change. Obtain the agreement the work requires. This is different from silently deciding inside your company. If you lack capacity to accommodate a change, this option is unavailable.

Decisions that can wait. These do not block preceding tasks. Still, establish how long they can wait. An undecided specification should not become an item without a deadline.

Show customers both the available choices and how a delayed decision would affect starting and delivery dates. A deadline you set unilaterally is not evidence of customer approval.

The sales-to-operations handover covers transferring project information. Here the decision is how far work can proceed while an item remains unresolved.

What does a flexible service actually provide?

If customers need help developing specifications, you can choose to make that assistance part of the service. Separate specification development from full production and define each stage's scope, price, and staffing.

That is a choice about service design, not permission to convert already agreed work into paid consultation. Handle current contracts under their existing terms and review future offerings separately. Deciding what additional work the fee includes addresses a related decision.

If your brand promises approachable, flexible support, your team should be able to explain what you help customers decide and where a firm decision is required. The promise needs to connect to the work you can actually provide.

Do not evaluate progress only by how soon work starts

For the next comparable project, record days waiting to start, assumptions made, subsequent changes, and time spent on rework. An earlier start is not automatically a success if rework increases. Assess whether customers could make the necessary decisions while quality and safety were preserved.

In exploratory work or research and development, some answers require work to begin. Consider agreeing on a test scope and budget, plus a point at which to decide whether to continue. An open-items register cannot remove technical uncertainty.

To define the flexibility you promise and the scope you can provide as management decisions, see HUV DESIGN OFFICE's services. Technical verification and individual contractual judgments remain matters for the relevant specialists.

Source

[1] U.S. NIST, “Baldrige Criteria Commentary,” P.1 Organizational Description and 6.1 Work Processes (accessed October 11, 2026). https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-criteria-commentary

Author: Daisuke Irikura, Representative Director, HUV DESIGN OFFICE