Delayed assignment is also sometimes referred to as "late" assignment.

There are two common types of delayed assignment, delayed role assignment and delayed category assignment. 

Delayed role assignment

Roles are assigned to tasks as the performing role and to work products as the role that is responsible for the work product.

Delayed role assignment is where the assignment of a role to a task or work product is not done where the task or the work product is defined. The result is that the roles can be swapped out without changing the tasks or the work products. This supports the customization of the method to support a specific organization or set of governance policies.

Specifically, when delayed role assignment is used:

• The base definition of a task should not refer to specific performing role(s)
• The base definition of a work product should not refer to specific responsible role
• The base definition of a role should not refer to being responsible for specific work product(s) and/or refer to specific performed task(s).

Delayed role assignment affects both the structuring of the method (relationships between elements) and the detailing of method elements (hyperlinks in the text). Specifically, when delayed role assignment is used:

• (structure) Performing roles are assigned separate from the base task definition.
• (structure) Responsible roles are assigned separate from the base role definition.
• (detail) Work products are written without referencing a specific responsible role.
• (detail) Tasks are written without referencing specific performing role(s).  
• (detail) Roles are written without referencing specific tasks and/or work products.
• (detail) Instead of referring to a specific role, you can refer to the skills or competencies needed. If a role must be mentioned, use a generic role name (in lower case) that is easily understood.

Delayed standard category assignment

Delayed standard category assignment is an approach where method elements are defined without referencing a specific standard category in order to make it easier to define alternate categorization schemes (i.e., different domains, disciplines, etc).

When delayed standard category assignment is used, assignment of elements to standard categories is not done in the base method element definition. The assignments can be defined in sub-packages in the same plug-in as the element or in a completely separate plug-in.