The time commitments presented with each section describe only the time required to perform each data reduction step. These estimates do not include critically reviewing each step, the data analysis and the time required to decide on the data reduction itself. Running through a standard data reduction may only take up several minutes to a couple of hours. However, in practise, you may find it necessary to go through several reductions before deciding which method is best-suited for your science goals. It is also difficult to predict the amount of time you may need to spend to critically review the reductions processes.
While a number of routines have been developed over the years you may find that the available libraries do not do exactly what you want. The time commitments for customized data reduction depend on such factors as designing the reduction method, writing and testing code, and analyzing the results. Depending on the complexity of the method and on the amount of user's experience this process may require anywhere from a single day to several months of work.
In most cases you should be able to judge the amount of effort
required by reviewing either the pipe-line product or a standard
CIA reduction,and weigh this against your science goals.