Google's alternative is to not have fixed deadlines. I'm not sure there's really much else to say there. :-)
For the most part, Google's philosophy is "Hire smart people and get out of their way." Granted, there's an ever-growing list of exceptions to the "get out of their way" part. In short, there are very few circumstances where a manager will tell you "You have to launch by..." If you and your team want to set a hard ship date, then you can do it. If you want to say "It'll be done when it's done", you can probably do that too. Granted, every product area and team will tend to have their own quirks, but that's the "corporate position".
For the most part, Google's philosophy is "Hire smart people and get out of their way." Granted, there's an ever-growing list of exceptions to the "get out of their way" part. In short, there are very few circumstances where a manager will tell you "You have to launch by..." If you and your team want to set a hard ship date, then you can do it. If you want to say "It'll be done when it's done", you can probably do that too. Granted, every product area and team will tend to have their own quirks, but that's the "corporate position".