I always like to refer back to a saying we had in a fiber optics communication development lab I worked in for a super large corp. Management always hated this saying lol (understandable for those not doing the work).
"You can't schedule invention."
At the same time the lab 'had' to give a best guess timeline that all sides knew had a small probability to even be within 25% of the ultimate reality. Management tacitly knew this but still they had their own 'masters' that required a schedule.