A window of opportunity (also called a margin of opportunity or critical window) is a period of time during which some action can be taken that will achieve a desired outcome. Once this period is over, or the "window is closed", the specified outcome is no longer possible.

Examples

Examples of windows of opportunity include: *The

critical period In developmental psychology and developmental biology, a critical period is a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli. If, for some reason, the org ...

in neurological

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photograph ...

, during which

neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it p ...

is greatest and key functions, such as imprinting and

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

, are acquired which may be impossible to acquire at a later stage *The golden hour or golden time, used in

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the Medical specialty, medical speciality concerned with the care of illnesses or Injury, injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (often called “ER doctors” in the United States) continuous ...

to describe the period following traumatic injury in which life-saving treatment is likely to be successful * Market opportunities, in which one may be positioned to take advantage of a gap in a particular market, the timing of which may depend on the activities of customers, competitors, and other market context factors *

Planting Sowing is the process of planting seeds. An area or object that has had seeds planted in it will be described as a sowed or sown area. Plants which are usually sown Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sown, grasses and leg ...

and

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most l ...

ing seasons, in agriculture, which are generally timed to maximize crop yields *Space launch and maneuver windows, which are determined by orbital dynamics and mission goals and constrained by

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy b ...

delta-v Delta-''v'' (more known as " change in velocity"), symbolized as ∆''v'' and pronounced ''delta-vee'', as used in spacecraft flight dynamics, is a measure of the impulse per unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver such a ...

budgets *The theorized tipping point in climatology, after which the Earth's climate is predicted to shift to a new stable equilibrium *Various transient astronomical events, which present limited (and often unpredictable) windows for observation

Characteristics

Timing

The timing and length of a critical window may be well known and predictable (as in planetary transits) or more poorly understood (in the case of medical emergencies or

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

). In some cases, there may be multiple windows during which a goal can be achieved, as in the case of space launch windows.

Costs

In some time-critical situations, failure to act may entail a continuously increasing cost over time, or a continuously decreasing probability over time of achieving the desired outcome. This may be represented in real-time computing systems by time-utility functions.

Automation

In situations with very brief or unpredictable windows of opportunity,

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

may be employed to take advantage of these windows, as in

algorithmic trading Algorithmic trading is a method of executing orders using automated pre-programmed trading instructions accounting for variables such as time, price, and volume. This type of trading attempts to leverage the speed and computational resources of ...

and time-domain astronomy.

Real-time computing Real-time computing (RTC) is the computer science term for hardware and software systems subject to a "real-time constraint", for example from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within specified time constrai ...

systems can guarantee responses on the order of milliseconds or less.

Artificial windows of opportunity

Critical windows for making purchases may be artificially imposed (or even falsely implied) as a

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

tactic to encourage action, in what is known as a " limited time offer".

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , author=American College of Surgeons , title=Atls, Advanced Trauma Life Support Program for Doctors , publisher=Amer College of Surgeons , year=2008 , isbn= 978-1880696316 {{cite web, last1=Morrison, first1=Maureen, title=How to Create a Successful Limited-Time Offer: A Do's (and One Don't) Guide for Marketers to Short-Lived Promos, url=http://adage.com/article/best-practices/practices-create-a-limited-time-offer/294230/, website=AdvertisingAge, publisher=Crain Communications, accessdate=22 April 2016, date=July 22, 2014 Ben-Ari, M., "Principles of Concurrent and Distributed Programming", Prentice Hall, 1990. {{ISBN, 0-13-711821-X. Ch16, Page 164 {{cite web, title=Window of Opportunity, url=https://www.boundless.com/finance/textbooks/192/capital-structure-13/capital-structure-considerations-102/window-of-opportunity-441-3874/, website=Boundless.com, accessdate=21 April 2016 {{cite web , title=Time Domain Astronomy , url=https://pweb.cfa.harvard.edu/research/topic/time-domain-astronomy , publisher=Center for Astrophysics , access-date=19 July 2022 {{cite web , title=window of opportunity , url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/window-of-opportunity , publisher=

Collins English Dictionary The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. The edition of the dictionary in 1979 with Patrick Hanks as editor and Laurence Urdang as editorial director, wa ...

, access-date=19 July 2022 {{cite web , title=Target of Opportunity Policies , url=https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/sciops/ToO_policies.html#:~:text=Target%20of%20Opportunity%20Observations%20(ToOs,require%20urgent%20or%20immediate%20observations. , publisher=European Southern Observatory , access-date=19 July 2022 {{cite web, last1=Heiney, first1=Anna, editor-first=Jeanne, editor-last=Ryba, title=Aiming for an Open Window, url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/launchwindows.html, website=NASA.gov, publisher=NASA Kennedy Space Center, accessdate=22 April 2016, date=February 23, 2012 {{cite web, title=Window of Opportunity, url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/window-of-opportunity.asp, publisher=Investopedia, accessdate=21 April 2016 {{cite web, url=https://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WG2AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf, title=Climate change 2014, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, year=2014, author=IPCC AR5 WGII, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514034430/http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WG2AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf, archivedate=2015-05-14 {{cite journal, last1=Lin, first1=Tom C. W., title=The New Investor, journal=UCLA Law Review, date=2013, volume=60, issue=678, ssrn=2227498, publisher=Temple University {{cite web, title=Illustration of a Short Gamma-Ray Burst Caused by a Collapsing Star, url=https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2121a/, date=July 26, 2021 , access-date=August 3, 2021 Robson, Ann L. "Critical/Sensitive Periods." Child Development. Ed. Neil J. Salkind. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 101-103. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. {{cite news, last1=Sull, first1=Donald N., last2=Wang, first2=Yong, title=The Three Windows of Opportunity, url=http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4835.html, accessdate=25 April 2016, work=Working Knowledge, publisher=Harvard Business School, date=June 6, 2005 {{cite web , title=Automated operations , url=https://www.swift.psu.edu/xrt/software.php , website=Mission Operations Center for Swift , publisher=

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

, access-date=19 July 2022 {{cite web, last1=Wheeler, first1=Robin, title=Apollo lunar landing launch window: The controlling factors and constraints, url=https://history.nasa.gov/afj/launchwindow/lw1.html, website=Apollo Flight Journal, accessdate=22 April 2016, date=2009 Time Causes of events Intention Planning Business terms Broad-concept articles Emergency medicine Developmental biology Spaceflight concepts Real-time computing Climatology Observational astronomy