Answer debt

A chart can be delivered and the question can still be open. The ticket is closed because someone sent the extract. The decision was not made, or it was made on instinct while three versions of the number sat in the thread. That unfinished question does not disappear. It comes back next month under a slightly different name.

What counts as still open

• Asked, and the thread died before anyone acted.
• Answered three ways, so the meeting picked a feeling.
• Answered once, then reopened because the definition was never kept.

Closed means someone acted on one agreed number. Anything else is debt, including the questions a dashboard was built to settle. Decision latency is how long each one takes. Answer debt is the pile. The article is what the pile looks like across a month of meetings.

Why the backlog report undercounts it

Ticket systems count work items. A renamed question is a new work item and an old argument. The team looks busy and the debt is invisible. The honest inventory is the list of leadership questions from the last month, marked closed only when someone acted.

Five timed questions show the same pile from the other side. You do not need a new tool to see it. You need a meeting owner willing to write down what was abandoned.

What pays it down

One recurring question, given a written definition and a named owner, pays down more than a new catalogue. Close it properly and the renamed cousins get harder to open. Leave it, and every new dashboard is another place for the same question to go unanswered.