Fixed deadline, negotiable scope

A missed deadline breaks trust, and broken trust takes a long time to repair. So the deadline does not move. What moves is what goes inside it.

When we cannot fit everything into the time we have, we reduce scope. We ship the most important things first and defer the rest. An imperfect result delivered on time is better than a perfect one delivered late. At least the imperfect one exists in the world, and you can build from there.

Cutting scope is not failure. It is judgement. Knowing what to leave out is as important as knowing what to build.