If you’re not reporting back on a contracted delivery, then your focus as a leader should be on two things.

• The ability to deliver continuously. This brings down release pressure, because at least in theory, you can release functionality to your users whenever you want.

• Managing an efficient delivery process, characterised by:

• High throughput - i.e., stories delivered per sprint.

• And a low cycle time - i.e. the time it takes for a “ready for dev” story to get “done”. 

The key to this approach is to size all stories similarly. The smaller, the better. You can still negotiate scope at the story and the release level, but your focus is to get more done, fast. No estimates necessary!

To learn more, read Vasco Duarte’s book - “No estimates - how to measure project progress without estimating”