How long will it take you to build this?

My colleague and I get this question a dozen times a day.

One day the big boss man pulls me aside and asks, "When I ask you how long it's going to take to build something, you tell me a long time but finish it quicker than expected. When I ask your colleague the same question, he tells me it will be quick, but takes a lot longer than expected. What's up with that?"

Well, there's several reasons, of course. First of all allow me to explain why we give differing time estimations. I can't read my colleague's mind, so I'm speculating on his thought process, but I believe that he answers the question literally. He hears the word "build" and interprets it as "code". In his mind, he believes that he can "build" the project in so many hours, and he does. However, what the boss is really asking is how long it will take to discuss, design, code, test, review, change, discuss again, redesign, re-code, test again, package it up, document it if necessary, and deliver it to the client. These are all the factors that I consider when asked "how long?" which is why my time estimations are so much larger than my colleague's.

OK, so why then do I overestimate and he underestimates? Again, there are several factors. He underestimates because he is again answering the question literally. My colleague suspects it will take him a certain amount of hours to complete a project, and he answers the question as if he were going to devote said hours to the project. However, what the boss is really asking is, "When can you finish this new project while still contributing to all your current projects and compensating for forthcoming interruptions such as impromptu meetings, phone calls, and cleaning the latest Outlook virus off my system?" These are the reasons that I overestimate; I anticipate a plethora of distractions, and when I'm lucky enough to get an hour or two of solid uninterrupted work done, I manage to deliver projects ahead of my anticipated schedule.

The real humor in all this is we've been iterating this cycle for so many years now the big boss man, admittedly, interpolates our time estimates and expects projects in half the time I declare and twice as long as my colleague proclaims.