Well, okay, sure, if you want me to make some numbers up, I can do that. Just understand that you're not actually asking me to estimate the time a process will

Well, okay, sure, if you want me to make some numbers up, I can do that. Just understand that you're not actually asking me to estimate the time a process will take, you're asking me to make some numbers up so that you can convince yourself to feel good about the speculative investment you're making! Edit: we've apparently had different experiences around the word "estimate"; for me that's always been a term used by managers who want something they can slot into a Gantt chart or its equivalent, and trying to play along with that game has always led to frustration. The people in my experience who have been looking for "some criteria to make a decision" haven't generally called the information they're looking for an "estimate". The processes which have actually worked, in my experience, don't start with tasks and try to generate a schedule which fits: instead, the process starts with a schedule, and the engineer's job is to figure out what can be done in the time available and how most effectively to make progress within that framework.