How Long Until Done? A Question That Can't Be Answered

When an problem happens and you state "How long?" or "What the expected time of this being solved?", normally we can provide an answer, but when the issue hasn't been identified, is drastically more challenging or you as a client has caused disruption to your own operations by taking it upon yourself to find a solution, this answer can't be provided in a simple manner.

If you see one of us state "How long is a piece of string?", it basically means "Look, you are asking the impossible, how do you think we can give you that answer if we don't know ourselves?". If you think about it, a piece of string can be 1cm or 10m and anywhere in between, hence using it as a phrase. Some people can see this as being rude or disrespectful, but it's meant as a indirect hint to think about what answer could be.

We aren't trying to be mean, it's just a comment to say "Back off (in the polite way), what do you want us to do?" No one can perform miracles.