I think it’s important to build in a discovery period for projects. Usually at the project kickoff meetings, stakeholders will immediately want to know what the final delivery date will be. This may not always be attainable especially in the case of complex projects so expectations need to be set efficiently during the discovery period in which PMs and other stakeholders can decompose a project to determine the true scope. It may cost some time initially but it will save a lot of stress in the long-run by giving everyone on board a sense of direction. As Dr. Simon mentioned, it is helpful to create a cumulative gain chart backwards. It’s effective to create your schedule working backwards from the committed date and then padding the date with buffer weeks. The buffer weeks can be used to allow for any setbacks that may and most likely will pop up in the project life but allow you to still meet the deadline since it is essentially overestimated rather than underestimated.