Timebox

In software project management, a timebox is a period of time in which to accomplish some task. The end date is set in stone and may not be changed. If the team exceeds the date, the work is considered a failure and is cancelled or rescheduled. Some timeboxes allow the team to adjust the scope of the task in order to meet the deadline.

Timeboxes are used as a form of risk management for tasks that easily run over their deadlines. Timeboxes are commonly used in agile software development to manage software development risk. In agile development, the team is repeatedly tasked with producing a releasable improvement to software, timeboxed to a specific number of weeks.