Project mode of Product development
I have observed and heard that the "project mode" of software development is happening in digital transformations and new application development in firms that have adopted an agile way of working. The management and sponsors are interested in knowing when the "complete scope" or product goal will be released. The team must adhere to a set start and finish date while iteratively developing a product and experimenting with lean techniques.Improved predictability is one of the advantages of using an iterative development process. However, after a few consistent sprints, is it possible to anticipate the month and date when the product goal will be achieved? How a project's end date might be committed to while taking certain things into account,
The whole backlog wont be ready(not even with high level stories with 50 or 100 SP for a story!) it will be emergent.
A newly created team must go through the storming and norming phases, which will take a few sprints (although management anticipates that Scrum Masters will work their magic to improve the team's performance from sprint 1).
Event-based milestones must be reached while there is a large degree of initial ambiguity (the "Cone of Uncertainty") regarding technical solutions, dependencies, and other factors.
How the risk of Quality, lack of space for innovation and self-management, no or less time to assess and prioritise the customer feedbacks are Owned/Accepted ?. What is achieved by having traditional project management controls for iterative way of product development ? The organisations have deployed many Agile coaches, Transformation consultants, Scrum Masters, Are they all convinced with sponsors expecting single end date for project from the team? Or Is there any better practice to manage this expectation ? I may be missing a view here that other see.
What is achieved by having traditional project management controls for iterative way of product development ?
An old banger with a go-faster stripe. The benefit of illusion through the veneer of agile practice. Remember that people might want change, but they rarely want to change.
Are they all convinced with sponsors expecting single end date for project from the team? Or Is there any better practice to manage this expectation ? I may be missing a view here that other see.
Those aren't sponsors. You've described a frozen layer consisting of the organisation's officers, whose job is to maintain and defend the status quo, and which could be thought of by them as common sense.
Sponsors are those in senior leadership who can create, communicate, and reinforce a sense of urgency for change, so it actually becomes more important than the day job, and organizational gravity is overcome.
As I read your post an old saying came to mind. I don't know if you have ever heard of "putting lipstick on a pig". In the end it might look different but it is still a pig. What you described is not agile software development. It is still old command-control, fixed date project management. Sure you can say you have Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches but those are just job titles assigned to do project management.
Agile software delivery is about building what the stakeholder needs at the time it is delivered. It is about saying we are finished with this when the stakeholder says they have what they can use now. In old style project management you find out what the stakeholder needs now and then put together a plan to deliver it in X months. The fallacy of that approach doesn't take into account that X months could be a long time in the stakeholder's life and that there could be significant amount of change in their lives. So what you end up delivering is what the stakeholder needed X months ago.
Your "sponsors" don't understand what agile software development means. They think that agile means going faster. But in the concept of agile software development it is intended to imply the ability to adapt to changes as they are recognized. Animals that are said to be agile are fast but they can also alter their course very quickly and on a moments notice. Ever see videos of a cheetah going after prey? That illustrates what agile software development is. What your sponsors want is similar to a train or plane. They want to leave from one point and go to another point but that you should try to make it in less time than originally thought it would take.
The organisations have deployed many Agile coaches, Transformation consultants, Scrum Masters,...
Those are job titles. What is important is the job description associated to those titles says that the individual will do. I have seen many job postings for a Scrum Master that read as a Project Manager. Again, lipstick on a pig.