The meaning of life...

... is something they might as well have asked for.  I've been given a 7-page bulleted list of high-level requirements for a new feature.  I am expected to estimate, within the next 24 hours, the effort that will be required to build this product.  After my first pass through the document, I have literally 3x as many questions as there are requirements.


Normally when I can't figure something out, I can at least quickly figure out how to figure out how to figure it out. Not this time. The bounds of problem set are unknown, and unknowable without an estimated 20 solid work days of intense multidisciplinary review & brainstorming involving, I'd estimate, ~15ppl minimum. That'd be just to figure out the size of the problem.

UPDATE 9/10/2009:  I heard just last week that they're still trying to figure this one out.