Blank Check Projects

When you have a "Blank Check Project" you can expect the amount of time we spend on it to be very high because the cost isn't capped. This is because there's no timebox to prevent any scope creep that comes along.

The only thing that will every make the project get done is if stakeholders get impatient (and the programmers use it) for a feature which then puts the stress and pressure a timebox would have given.

It's tempting to think, "you can't rush quality", but I think it's a little flawed, constraints are good for focus and creativity, if you don't have them anything can be put into your sprint. If you're allowed to go in all directions you'll make less progress then if you go in one (see: Essentialism).

While it's counter-intuitive to timebox things, I think it's very important.

Note, I'm not saying that we never extend a project, but I do think that by making it too easy we're asking for a lot of runaway train kind of projects.