--- title: "What is an honest close? · DeliverySheet" description: "An honest close ends a commitment by comparison, not a checkbox: delivered as committed, with named differences, or not delivered, and says what differed." canonical_url: "https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/honest-close" meta: author: "Tan Gravam" "og:description": "An honest close ends a commitment by comparison, not a checkbox: delivered as committed, with named differences, or not delivered, and says what differed." "og:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_34a12719fdafe518.png" "og:image:alt": "Honest close — DeliverySheet glossary card" "og:image:height": "600" "og:image:type": image/png "og:image:width": "1200" "og:title": "What is an honest close? — DeliverySheet glossary" "twitter:description": "An honest close ends a commitment by comparison, not a checkbox: delivered as committed, with named differences, or not delivered, and says what differed." "twitter:image": "https://www.deliverysheet.com/_og/s/o_34a12719fdafe518.png" "twitter:image:alt": "Honest close — DeliverySheet glossary card" "twitter:title": "What is an honest close? — 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 an honest close?** An honest close ends a commitment by comparison rather than checkbox: delivered as committed, delivered with named differences, or not delivered — the difference recorded in words whenever the result was not clean. The close is what makes every earlier claim auditable: whether estimates run light, whether early commitments miss more often, what "high confidence" meant in practice. A "done" checkbox destroys exactly that data at the moment it is freshest. ## **Honest close vs closing the ticket vs a retrospective** Closing a ticket records that work stopped. An honest close records how the result compared with the promise — which is a different fact, and the only one that can later tell you whether your commitments mean anything. A retrospective is different again: it asks how the team worked and what to change. The close comes first and feeds it; a retrospective without an honest close is a discussion about a result nobody wrote down. ## **A worked example** The commitment: customers can export their invoices as CSV and PDF by the end of June, delivered by the backend and frontend teams. The close: delivered with differences. CSV export shipped before the date. PDF export did not — the generated documents failed the accessibility review late in delivery, and the team chose to ship CSV on time rather than slip both. PDF is now a separate demand with its own decision. Three sentences, and they carry everything a later reader needs: what was promised, what happened, why, and what became of the gap. The lesson writes itself from there — for customer-facing documents, book the accessibility review at commitment, not at the end. ## **Common mistakes** Closing as "delivered" while the differences stay unspoken, which teaches everyone that the close is a formality. Writing the difference about people rather than about the work, which teaches everyone to write less next time. Closing weeks late, when nobody remembers what the original promise said. And treating "not delivered" as something to avoid recording — it is the most informative close there is, and the one most often lost. [The essay behind “Honest close” →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/blog/delivered-is-not-an-outcome) [Topic: After the commitment →](https://www.deliverysheet.com/topics/deliver) ## **Related terms ** - [Re-baseline](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/re-baseline) A re-baseline is a deliberate, recorded change to a delivery commitment: a new outcome, date or capacity, with the reason for the change, kept beside the original baseline instead of overwriting it. - [Delivery outcome](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/delivery-outcome) A delivery outcome is the explicit close of a commitment: what actually shipped, and — when the result is not a clean delivery — what differed from the promise. - [RAG status](https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/rag-status) A RAG status is a traffic-light health signal on delivery — on track, at risk, off track — that is a judgement by the person accountable, not a computation, and is only worth reading when the reasoning comes with it. 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/honest-close#term","name":"Honest close","description":"An honest close ends a commitment by comparison rather than checkbox: delivered as committed, delivered with named differences, or not delivered — the difference recorded in words whenever the result was not clean.","url":"https://www.deliverysheet.com/glossary/honest-close","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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