> If I ask you how long it'll take to add a new database field, and you've added a new database field 100s of times in the past and each time they take 1 day, your estimate for it is going to be very spot-on.

But in the software world, predictable and repetitive tasks are also the kinds of tasks that are most easily automated

The slow part isn't following a written "log in and run ALTER TABLE" runbook, it's the review of "does this solution make sense given what we're trying to do".