Why Estimating and Planning Still Matter - Mike Cohn
From The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad by AgileDad ~ V. Lee Henson
April 15, 2026 · 4 min · Season 5 · Episode 1563
About this episode
Mike Cohn discusses the importance of estimating and planning in agile teams despite common misconceptions.
Why Estimating and Planning Still Matter - Mike Cohn Over the years, I’ve talked with a lot of teams who’ve been burned by estimating and planning. They’ve seen estimates treated as promises. Plans turned into contracts. Teams punished for being wrong rather than rewarded for learning. Given experiences like those, it’s understandable that many teams conclude the solution is to eliminate estimating and planning altogether. I think that’s a mistake. Estimating and planning still matter—not because the future is predictable, but because it isn’t. Teams and organizations still have to make decisions about what to work on, what to delay, and what risks they’re willing to accept. Those decisions don’t disappear just because we stop estimating. Any time we choose one piece of work over another, we’re estimating. The real choice isn’t whether to estimate, but whether those estimates are explicit or implicit. In my experience, explicit estimates create transparency. Implicit estimates just hide the guessing. One of the biggest problems with estimating is the belief that estimates exist to be accurate. A better question is whether an estimate is good enough to support the decision being…
People in this episode
Host: V. Lee Henson
Guest: Mike Cohn
Topics covered
- estimating
- planning
- agile methodology
- team dynamics
- decision making
Keywords
- estimating
- planning
- agile
- teams
- decision making
- transparency
- adaptability
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