Collaboration & Process › Estimation & Planning

Timeboxing

Fixing the time and adjusting the scope.

Also known as: time-boxing, time box

Timeboxing means fixing the amount of time you spend on something, and letting the scope change to fit. Instead of “build the whole feature, then ship”, you say “spend two days on this, and ship whatever works at the end”. The deadline stays put, and the scope is what gets cut.

A sprint is a timebox. So is a spike, a short investigation with a fixed end, and a timed session on a hard bug.

Timebox: 2 days to investigate the slow report
Day 2 end: write up what we found, even if the fix isn't done

Timeboxing works well when the team is unsure how long something will take, and when a partial result is still useful. It stops open-ended investigations from quietly taking over a week.

The classic mistake is starting a timebox and then extending it when time runs out, without deciding anything. The point is to make the trade-off explicit: either the scope shrinks, or someone decides consciously that the deadline should move. Stop at the end of the box and review what you have.