Hard deadlines are not user-first
At Pivotal, I learned that having sprints is silly. They have the concept of one week iterations instead. The PM just keeps a rolling backlog of stories and devs just pick the next one off the top. Dev&#x27;s are responsible for pointing the stories and the sum of those points averaged over time (usually 2-3 weeks) become velocity.<p>Just keep the velocity as consistent as possible and things work out for the best. If the PM wants a story moved up the list, then they can see how much work will fit into an iteration and how it will affect schedules.<p>All of this is managed in their homegrown, but publicly available tool called Pivotal Tracker. You can read the website documentation for a more thorough explanation. Once I learned this methodology and started practicing it like a religion, deadlines went away and PM&#x27;s could estimate due dates many weeks in advance. It was a life changing experience that I highly recommend at least giving a shot at your own workplace.