--- title: "What is the demand lifecycle? · DeliverySheet" description: "The demand lifecycle takes a request to a closed outcome: Capture, Shape, Decide, Plan, Commit, Deliver, Learn. A demand walks only the stages it needs." canonical_url: "https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand-lifecycle" meta: author: "Tan Gravam" "og:description": "The demand lifecycle takes a request to a closed outcome: Capture, Shape, Decide, Plan, Commit, Deliver, Learn. A demand walks only the stages it needs." "og:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_33a3afeb3e279736.png" "og:image:alt": "Demand lifecycle — DeliverySheet glossary card" "og:image:height": "600" "og:image:type": image/png "og:image:width": "1200" "og:title": "What is the demand lifecycle? — DeliverySheet glossary" "twitter:description": "The demand lifecycle takes a request to a closed outcome: Capture, Shape, Decide, Plan, Commit, Deliver, Learn. A demand walks only the stages it needs." "twitter:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_33a3afeb3e279736.png" "twitter:image:alt": "Demand lifecycle — DeliverySheet glossary card" "twitter:title": "What is the demand lifecycle? — DeliverySheet glossary" --- > Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://www.deliverysheet.com/llms.txt) [← All terms](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary) **Glossary ** # **What is the demand lifecycle?** The demand lifecycle is the path a work request takes from arrival to a closed outcome: Capture, Shape, Decide, Plan, Commit, Deliver, Learn — where a demand only walks the stages it needs. The stages exist to place the expensive questions early: shaping before deciding, readiness before committing, an honest close before the lesson. A small demand can skip planning ceremony entirely; what no demand skips is the decision and the close. ## **The seven stages, and what each one is for** Capture takes the request in at a bar that makes it decidable. Shape turns it into an understanding: problem, outcome, impact, and what is known versus assumed versus unknown. Decide chooses the exit — plan, discover, park, decline. Plan establishes readiness: owner, per-team capacity, dependencies, decisions and risks. Commit records the promise against that capacity. Deliver keeps the promise visible while it is being kept and then closes it with an outcome — what shipped, and what differed when the result was not clean. Learn requires a written lesson before the demand is complete. Each stage exists to stop the next one from being taken on faith. ## **Not every demand walks every stage** A small fix goes capture, shape, decide, a light delivery-plan confirmation in place of the full plan and commit, deliver, and closes with a light lesson. An unclear idea loops decide, discovery, decide again until there is enough to commit to or a reason to stop. An urgent compliance item may skip planning ceremony and commit with a recorded exception. The line is the same; the walk is not. What no demand skips is the decision and the close. Skipping the decision produces work nobody chose; skipping the close produces a backlog of things that stopped changing without anyone saying whether they worked. [Topic: Turning a request into a decision →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/topics/intake) ## **Related terms ** - [Intake](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/intake) Work intake is the point where work requests enter an organisation, and the bar a request must clear there to become decidable: what needs to change, plus who is affected or why it matters now. - [Triage](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/triage) Request triage is the decision about what happens next to each incoming request, with four recorded exits: plan it, run a time-boxed discovery, park it with a review date, or decline it with a reason. - [Backlog bankruptcy](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/backlog-bankruptcy) Backlog bankruptcy is the deliberate closure of an oversized backlog by finally making the decisions it contains — each item leaving as a recorded decline with a reason, a park with a review date, or a survivor someone will still argue for out loud. This definition comes from building **DeliverySheet** — it takes a vague work request to a clear delivery decision, so the shape, owner, capacity, dependencies and open questions are on the table before anyone commits people or a date. $189/month per workspace, unlimited members. 7-day free trial — card required, cancel before it ends and you're not charged. I answer the support email myself. [**Start 7-day trial **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/login?next=/app) [**All terms **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary) [**See pricing **](https://www.deliverysheet.com/pricing) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DefinedTerm","@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand-lifecycle#term","name":"Demand lifecycle","description":"The demand lifecycle is the path a work request takes from arrival to a closed outcome: Capture, Shape, Decide, Plan, Commit, Deliver, Learn — where a demand only walks the stages it needs.","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand-lifecycle","inDefinedTermSet":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary#termset"} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#website","@type":"WebSite","description":"Turn raw work requests into structured, decision-ready demands before you commit people, budget, or a date. 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