You are making the assumption that development estimates have anything to do with when management, sales, or customers decide that they need something. Even wi

You are making the assumption that development estimates have anything to do with when management, sales, or customers decide that they need something. Even without mgt/sales over-promising stuff to customers based on wishful thinking and only wanting to say "Yes" to a stupid customer demand without even bothering to ask development/engineering, I've seen situations where the date is the date, period. I've been in plenty of situations where it doesn't matter - it's an event, scheduled years in advance, national television, and the show goes on at Monday 16:00 PDT, period. Scheduling estimates have nothing to do with it. Be ready and be there, or everyone gets nothing. The only question is: "Can the team do it?".