C.40.OI:4.3 - Separate the return time from the development horizon

State when the inquiry’s result must be usable and over what horizon the proposed development or its consequences matter. For example, an inquiry can return by Friday about a contribution intended to improve work over four months. The available effort within that window belongs in §4.5: six staff-hours is a resource ceiling, not the inquiry’s elapsed duration. Add another change or consequence horizon only when it changes the question or protections.

Name conditions that the inquiry may not silently trade away. Depending on the subject and use, these can include safety, legal or professional limits, privacy, confidentiality, workload, service continuity, accessibility, resource ceilings, reversibility, distributional consequences, or preservation of future options. The direct practice owns their meaning and evidence.