--- title: Estimating and Planning in Agile: Why They Still Matter... description: Estimation and planning remain essential in agile development, not for predicting the future but for making informed decisions. Teams that abandon these... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/estimating-and-planning-in-agile-why-they-still-matter-in-2026-rbrh3dncx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Estimating and Planning in Agile: Why They Still Matter in 2026 | daily.dev og:description: Estimation and planning remain essential in agile development, not for predicting the future but for making informed decisions. Teams that abandon these... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/estimating-and-planning-in-agile-why-they-still-matter-in-2026-rbrh3dncx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/RBrH3DncX.png og:image:alt: Estimating and Planning in Agile: Why They Still Matter in 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Estimating and Planning in Agile: Why They Still Matter in 2026 **[The Mountain Goat Software](https://daily.dev/sources/mountaingoatsoftware)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Estimation and planning remain essential in agile development, not for predicting the future but for making informed decisions. Teams that abandon these practices often make implicit estimates anyway, creating hidden assumptions. Effective estimation treats numbers as hypotheses rather than promises, uses ranges instead of single values, and ties every estimate to a specific decision. Flow metrics complement but don't replace estimation, especially for novel work. The key is using estimates to support learning and decision-making rather than as tools for blame or performance evaluation. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Estimates – a necessary evil?](https://daily.dev/posts/estimates-a-necessary-evil--ajvavuowp) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What I Learned from a Quarter of Intentional Growth](https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-a-quarter-of-intentional-growth-ajfjrccza) · Atomic Spin · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How I estimate work as a staff software engineer](https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-estimate-work-as-a-staff-software-engineer-hxseyw07u) · sean goedecke · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#agile](https://daily.dev/tags/agile), [#project-management](https://daily.dev/tags/project-management), [#scrum](https://daily.dev/tags/scrum) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/estimating-and-planning-in-agile-why-they-still-matter-in-2026-rbrh3dncx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Estimating and Planning in Agile: Why They Still Matter in 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/estimating-and-planning-in-agile-why-they-still-matter-in-2026-rbrh3dncx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/estimating-and-planning-in-agile-why-they-still-matter-in-2026-rbrh3dncx"},"datePublished":"2026-01-27T13:45:12.204Z","dateModified":"2026-01-27T13:45:32.918Z","description":"Estimation and planning remain essential in agile development, not for predicting the future but for making informed decisions. 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