���When will it be done?���

It is a reasonable question. Your organization coordinates releases, customer commitments, and budget cycles around answers to it. The people asking are not being unreasonable.

The problem is that software estimates under genuine uncertainty cannot always be both honest and precise at the same time. When you are asked to commit to a date on work that is not yet fully understood, the pressure to sound confident tends to win over the pressure to be accurate.

What f...