"To be determined" (TBD), mostly used in its acronym form, denotes that the actual datum of which TBD is a stand-in is yet to be determined at the time of writing. TBD is often applied in engineering project documentation and preliminary contracts in industry.
Although TBD may be used for all kinds of preliminary or unknown-at-time-of-writing data, the most common uses in engineering documents and contracts are:
- dates of commencement, completion, etc
- money amounts, i.e. costs, prices
- physical quantities
