&gt;Don&#x27;t put hard commitments into the contracts then. Why slave yourself to something that you aren&#x27;t sure you can deliver?<p>Because you know full well that the contractual time limits will not, in fact, ever be relevant as you&#x27;ve added some neat tricks so as soon as the spec changes you get to adjust them (and the spec always changes).  One assumes therefore that the commitments are simply part of the bidding process as you try to craft a somewhat realistic but very attractive looking bid