Or what? You need to deliver to the customer by a certain time frame ... or what?

Most product deadlines are entirely circular, artificial, and the result of weak leadership and poor communication and coordination.

"But ... but we HAVE to deliver this by Friday."

"Why?"

"Because Sales told the customer they could have it by Friday."

"Without talking to anyone about it first? Sounds like Sales has some apologizing to do."

Hold you ground. Don't cave. And hold people accountable for their counterproductive misdeeds.

The reality is that deadlines are missed all the time. All. The. Time. The world continues to spin, and the sun continues to shine.

Even when we work effectively and efficiently, failure can still occur. And 99 times out of 10 we are given a second, third, and even fouth chance to deliver.

I'm not advocating blowing off deadlines, but could be please put them in some kind of realistic context?

This article presents one pragmatic option for creating a realistic roadmap.