[nnq]

> the business units are so disconnected from engineering they don't even realize the costs of what they're asking for

In software you get this at all levels, including in the freelance/consulting world - people have no clue of the costs of what they're asking for so when they can't even make bad guesses, they go with "how hard would it be..." for a big feature request or "can't you just..." for what they see as a small one.

I always prefer honesty over this - if you have no idea about even estimating the cost for some feature, just ask "How much will it take and how much will it cost to... ?", don't fuddle around with the "how hard...", "can't you..."... these are just weasel words for when you need to overwork and underpay someone because you really know you need something done yesterday and with almost no budget, but you really need it so maybe someone will just shoot himself in the foot to make it work for you if you ask nicely enough :)

[marbletiles]

You're putting way too much baggage on to "how hard". It doesn't necessarily carry any implications of "yesterday and with no budget"; it's a scoping question.

"How much will it take and how much will it cost to... ?" condenses down to "how hard…". You can tell they're functionally equivalent because you can give the exact same answer to both.

"Can't you just" is a whole different story, granted.

[nnq]

I somewhat agree with you, it's not "dishonesty", but when people phrase it like "how much will it take and how much will it cost to..." they usually have in mind the fact that it will take time and have a cost, whereas when they use the condensed variant, they tend to think that it can be "squeezed in there and worked on at the same time as everything else without delaying anything" ...it's folk psychology I know, but imho there's a more or less subconscious association between using the condensed form for talking about something and wanting to minimize the apparent cost/impact/etc. of it :)

[dragonwriter]

The people asking probably don't think they have no clue of the costs of what they are asking for, they think they have a vague idea of the relative costs based on their perception of what is involved and their past experience of other changes.

Now, these ideas may often be very wrong, and may be in fact so wrong that "no clue" is the best description, but its not, for the most part, dishonesty when people act like they have some general expectation of the cost.