>Deadlines exist because software doesn't exist in a vacuum, but other people depend on it being delivered. Exactly, even without external deliverables there a

>Deadlines exist because software doesn't exist in a vacuum, but other people depend on it being delivered. Exactly, even without external deliverables there are likely other internal initiatives that depend on the project or tie into it. Might even be something as simple as the QA team being booked on another project in a month that does have a hard deadline. So as long as something in the org has a hard external deadline there are going to be ripples that touch all projects in the org. Also, my experience is that if you communicate early that features need to be cut to meet the deadlines most managers will be happy.