How do you handle date and deadline pressures in Agile Environments?

* A listener sends us his question on what to do if you are pressured in the early days of a project to commit to specific deliverables on certain dates

* Remember that some projects reasonably require delivery commitments - especially those with regulatory, audit, or compliance expectations.  These may not make great first experiments in Agility, because Agile requires flexible scope in order to work well with the philosophy

* It is also perfectly normal for a business to want to make promises to its customers (and therefore demand them from its delivery teams)

* Agile provides a better model that allows for continuous scope negotiation.  This requires trust between product owner and team

* Attitudes and beliefs, or ‘frames’ have to change in order for the ‘when by’ culture to change