We need to stop treating estimates as deadlines.

Another favourite meme of mine posing a light hearted take on a real business challenge.

How often have you seen this when working with teams?

A stakeholder comes to you, perhaps taps you on the shoulder & asks 'Hey, if you could estimate when this will be complete, when would it be?'

You provide an honest answer, you're keen to demonstrate transparency, and yet the number you give, is then anchored as the deadline.

𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁.

The term deadline has a history entirely unrelated to business & yet it has become accepted business language. Deadlines for me, don't have much place in an agile world.

There are exceptions & we need to be pragmatic. Regulatory matters, urgent fixes, however these should be the exception, not the rule.

𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀

- Encourage teams to provide 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀.

- Shorten feedback loops with your customers. Regular communication breeds trust and confidence which can erode deadline setting behaviour.

- Rather than use RAG status, consider confidence voting

- Acknowledge & understand that things change that may impact estimates. This is ok

- Seek understanding as to why stakeholders are taking estimates to be gospel, and challenging ourselves to ask 'How can we serve our teams and organisations better' in the pursuit of this.

- Use the agile estimation game to demonstrate the challenges around estimation