Where's the box where the project manager, given an otherwise realistic estimate of project time, decides that the number is too high, and cajoles the developer into cutting everything by half (or more)? Because that happens all the damned time. I've even got a catchy headline: "Why do managers always want to squeeze blood from a stone?"
Granted, newer programmers are bad at estimating these sorts of systematic overheads. But people get better at estimating as they gain experience. One root problem that never goes away is that the people who want the estimates don't often want to hear about a cost that can't be broken down by line-item and individually justified. An answer of "it's going to take twice as long as we think", however true, rarely satisfies a manager.
Granted, newer programmers are bad at estimating these sorts of systematic overheads. But people get better at estimating as they gain experience. One root problem that never goes away is that the people who want the estimates don't often want to hear about a cost that can't be broken down by line-item and individually justified. An answer of "it's going to take twice as long as we think", however true, rarely satisfies a manager.