Many of us work in environments where the question "when will you be done with X?" matters. Some of the examples I have seen recently are:
- The business team wants a certain set of functional enhancements as well as performance & scalability improvements. Can we get both done? Will one need to take a back seat to the other?
- A customer has a "deployment window" that we want to hit with a certain set of functionality. Do we look like we will make it? If not, what adjustments might we make?
- A customer wants an early warning if the cost of a project is likely to go over a certain amount.