The key is to over communicate. When I'm managing a project like that in a situation like that I send an email similar to this:
As it currently stands our team will not make the deadline. In order to meet our priorities, I would like to redefine "feature A" to exclude "component Z". This means we will have to do manual work around X. The following alternatives are available: (A) change the deadline, (B) move feature A to next release, (C) remove some other feature". In the absence of any other guidance I'll direct the team to follow the plan above. Happy to discuss further.
I've always found this is a pretty effective strategy. Big companies aren't often dumb, you just need to know how to operate in them.
I think it depends on the company. I've worked inside organizations where that be entirely unacceptable. The date and feature sets are both fixed in advance and are treated as immutable. Nobody would say what you said, but if they did, they'd be on their way out.
The key is to over communicate. When I'm managing a project like that in a situation like that I send an email similar to this:
As it currently stands our team will not make the deadline. In order to meet our priorities, I would like to redefine "feature A" to exclude "component Z". This means we will have to do manual work around X. The following alternatives are available: (A) change the deadline, (B) move feature A to next release, (C) remove some other feature". In the absence of any other guidance I'll direct the team to follow the plan above. Happy to discuss further.
I've always found this is a pretty effective strategy. Big companies aren't often dumb, you just need to know how to operate in them.