--- title: "What is a demand? · DeliverySheet" description: "A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision." canonical_url: "https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand" meta: author: "Tan Gravam" "og:description": "A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision." "og:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_c60fb1131d7cf76b.png" "og:image:alt": "Demand — DeliverySheet glossary card" "og:image:height": "600" "og:image:type": image/png "og:image:width": "1200" "og:title": "What is a demand? — DeliverySheet glossary" "twitter:description": "A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision." "twitter:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_c60fb1131d7cf76b.png" "twitter:image:alt": "Demand — DeliverySheet glossary card" "twitter:title": "What is a demand? — 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 a demand?** A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision. A demand is distinct from a task: a task is work to do, a demand is a request that has not yet earned a commitment. It carries the problem, the intended outcome, an owner, and the open questions that would change the answer. ## **Demand vs request vs ticket** A request is what someone says: a sentence, usually naming a solution rather than a problem. A demand is that request once it has entered a lifecycle and become the unit a decision will be made about — it has a problem statement, an intended outcome, an owner and a set of open questions. A ticket is what exists after the decision: a unit of work to be executed, tracked in an execution tool. Collapsing the three is the common mistake. A request filed straight as a ticket has skipped the decision entirely — the work is now scheduled, and the question of whether it should have been is unaskable without looking like obstruction. ## **What a demand has to carry to be decided on** Six things, and a request contains none of them: the problem as distinct from the solution someone already has in mind, the outcome that would count as success, one named owner, a capacity figure the delivering team actually agreed to, the dependencies, and the open questions written down rather than assumed away. The last one does most of the work. A request written in one confident voice makes an assumption indistinguishable from a fact, and every estimate downstream inherits it. Separating what is known from what is assumed from what is unknown is the cheapest thing that can be done to a demand and the one most often skipped. [The essay behind “Demand” →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/blog/what-makes-a-request-shapeable) [Topic: Turning a request into a decision →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/topics/intake) ## **Related terms ** - [Clarification brief](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/clarification-brief) A clarification brief is a short artifact that separates what is known from what is assumed from what is still an open question, produced when a raw request is shaped into a demand. - [Demand management](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand-management) Demand management is the practice of deciding what happens to requested work — shaping raw requests into decidable demands, refusing or parking some on the record, and committing the rest against real capacity. - [Demand lifecycle](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/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. 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#term","name":"Demand","description":"A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision.","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand","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. AI-assisted shaping, planning and commitment governance for engineering leaders.","name":"DeliverySheet","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/","publisher":{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#identity"}},{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand#webpage","description":"A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision.","name":"Demand — DeliverySheet glossary","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand","@type":["WebPage","FAQPage"],"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand#breadcrumb"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#website"},"mainEntity":[{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand#/schema/question/1"}],"potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand"]}],"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#logo"}},{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#identity","@type":"Organization","alternateName":"Delivery Sheet","description":"Turn raw work requests into structured, decision-ready demands before you commit people, budget, or a date.","name":"DeliverySheet","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com","founder":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/about#person","name":"Tan Gravam"},"logo":{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#logo"}},{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand#breadcrumb","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","name":"Home","item":"https://www.deliverysheet.com","position":1},{"@type":"ListItem","name":"Glossary","item":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary","position":2},{"@type":"ListItem","name":"Demand","item":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand","position":3}]},{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/demand#/schema/question/1","@type":"Question","inLanguage":"en","name":"What is a demand?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A demand is a work request that has entered the delivery lifecycle — the unit a delivery governance system tracks from intake to decision. A demand is distinct from a task: a task is work to do, a demand is a request that has not yet earned a commitment. It carries the problem, the intended outcome, an owner, and the open questions that would change the answer."}},{"@id":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/#logo","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"DeliverySheet","contentUrl":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/logo.png","inLanguage":"en","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/logo.png"}]} ``` ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](https://www.deliverysheet.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.