Update the estimate

Career · Little Light original

The project was six weeks old when the team discovered that a key assumption was wrong. The original date is still on every slide, so the room begins searching for ways to preserve it. People shorten testing, hide contingency, and speak about the new evidence as though it were a failure of commitment. An estimate is a decision made with available information, not an oath against future facts. Rebuild it openly. Show what changed, which options remain, and what each option costs in scope, time, or risk. A revised date may disappoint people; a date protected by wishful thinking can damage the work and the trust around it. Reliability is not never changing an answer. It is changing the answer responsibly when reality changes. The team is not stepping away from the promise by making its conditions visible. It is giving everyone a fair chance to decide which promise can still be kept.

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