Agile planning & estimation mindset (as a manifesto)

In the time I have been at Thoughtworks, almost every year there is a debate about how one should estimate and plan, in the delivery engagements that we work on.

Given the variety of engagements that we do, there is no one size fits all approach.  But there is probably a mindset that is useful when approaching these engagements. And I made an attempt to make my mindset explicit (inspired from the Agile manifesto)

I value

Learnings from the estimation conversation over Estimation numbers themselves

Shorter plans with lightweight estimates over Longer plans with precise estimates

Using past trend/flow data  over Estimating every time 

Optimising for delivery of business value over Optimising for time and budget

While adhering to one of the core principles of

Learning by releasing working software frequently, from daily to a couple of weeks, with a preference for a shorter time scale.