Who cares if it's real?

I just spent the past 20 minutes working with a co-worker to come up with a project plan for a project that has no scope yet but a defined deadline. I tried to explain that it was an equation (Time) x (Resource) = (Output) working through that we basically had two down.

"But what are the deliverables?" she asked.
"We know rough percentages of project tasks; you can set up a calendar based off of those best practices." I replied.
"But how are people supposed to know when they have to have things done? Once I put this in writing, people's feet will be held to the fire."
"Put in steps to re-estimate the process; both time and money to re-calibrate the timeline."

She continued to protest.
"It's not real." I said.

She is going to work on it a little more; I slid my chair back to my desk, continuing to eat my turkey and spinach salad; and then I realized, I am officially part of the system that just slides the shit through, without putting on the brakes. Nothing has changed people still want it simple and easy ("When can I have it? Huh? When?") without understanding.

Happy Monday indeed.