[Pokepokalypse]

>Most estimates are inherently given on a "if I am in a perfect working environment with no interruptions" basis and we don't even acknowledge _that_.

I had the experience of working at a company that had the practice of rigorously tracking engineer-hours. Through a time-card system. (this was for billing our clients). This way we always had a paper trail of how long we spent on a given task or project, and it was generally "against the rules" to bill hours you weren't directly working on that project.

This led to having an awareness of that imperfect working environment, and was a powerful enabler of making good estimates.

On the other hand: that documentation effort wasn't free either.