zlacker

> what the contingency plans are if new work is discovered (reducing specific scope, moving more people (who are hopefully somewhat ramped up), moving out timelines)

I think this is the most important. You can't just HAVE contingency plans, but you need to be clear in who you need to get approval / sign-off on those contingency plans and who you need to notify. As a developer, knowing that you're going to need to drop Feature B to hit your deadline, but being unable to get the right people to approve dropping Feature B is endlessly frustrating and a massive waste of time on any project.

>>jkubic+(OP)
Yup, the whole chain of command needs to be bought in. All of this is not “in my head” but “well established with m1, m2, pm”

In my experience this is a really hard conversation and you have to build a lot of relationship/trust (aka politics) within the company to be direct about it. But it saves you and your team from burnout, because it eliminates the expectation of “if you fall behind you’ll work 80hrs/wk until the timeline is caught up” which is what I’ve seen happen too many times.