I read that in the common dismissive tone that I hear regularly and cringed. I'm not sure it was your intent but when higher-ups try to ascertain the level of complexity/work with little to no knowledge of the problem, these sentences fly.
Having been one of those managers, I understand that they're largely trying to be optimistic and justify their own demands but as a project drags on, it depresses the hell out of me.
You read it exactly right. I've had project managers tell me, in that same tone, that they disagreed with my six month estimate for a project, and said they could do it in a weekend. I tried offering to swap jobs for a while, but they never went for that. I'm not surprised; more often than not I wasn't just the tech lead and architect on my projects, but I did most of the project management too.
I read that in the common dismissive tone that I hear regularly and cringed. I'm not sure it was your intent but when higher-ups try to ascertain the level of complexity/work with little to no knowledge of the problem, these sentences fly.
Having been one of those managers, I understand that they're largely trying to be optimistic and justify their own demands but as a project drags on, it depresses the hell out of me.