Actually, not every business has schedule as their top priority. That's true of most R&D efforts, and it's especially true of creative endeavors, which tend to

Actually, not every business has schedule as their top priority. That's true of most R&D efforts, and it's especially true of creative endeavors, which tend to be (in NASA parlance) "discovery driven missions." It comes down to cheap, fast, and good. You can pick any two you like. If you're lucky, you'll get both, so you better be sure to note which matters most, because honestly, that's what's going to drive everything else. This is especially true of non-routine work, like much of art in general. Creative businesses that make a priority of hitting deadlines must either have very deep pockets, or enough latitude to ship sub-par product. A great example of this is the Clock of the Long Now, which is being designed and built by Danny Hillis. This is a clock that is designed to run for 10,000 years. Quality is job one. Right now, they have about $43 million to work with (supplied by Jeff Bezos). When people ask when it will be ready, they say "we don't know." Pressed for a ballpark figure, the answer is simple: "No."