An architecture that is operable to predict when a selected work item will be serviced in a contact center 100 includes a service time predictor 260 operable to (a) select a plurality of successive time intervals, each of the plurality of time intervals recurring cyclically over a period of time; (b) determine a number of work items likely to be serviced during each of the plurality of time intervals; (c) select an enqueued work item waiting to be serviced, the enqueued work item having a corresponding queue position; and (d) predict a time interval of the plurality of time intervals in which the selected work item will be serviced by comparing the queue position of the selected work item with the number of work items likely to be serviced in at least some of the time intervals.