I knew this from years of experience, and I provided ample evidence (and research) on this problem to executive management at companies I worked for.
The sad fact is that PHBs, even well-intentioned ones, simply do not know what it's like to create multi-layer models in your mind and then develop from those models. They hear the marketing guys bullshitting all day about clients and thing that _that_ is work, progress.
In the end, it just means that the backbone of the modern company functions more poorly, and that revenues are potentially lower than they could be. Maybe the lower revenues are offset by the lower office rent costs; maybe the only real loss is the happiness (and loyalty/tenure) of the thought workers of the company.
This leads to another problem that we all suffer (via bugs, hacks, viruses, and otherwise lack of software quality) - that people running companies really have no concept what software is. I see no solution to this problem, since ultimately even the companies started by geeks get absorbed by bigger companies run by PHBs...
The sad fact is that PHBs, even well-intentioned ones, simply do not know what it's like to create multi-layer models in your mind and then develop from those models. They hear the marketing guys bullshitting all day about clients and thing that _that_ is work, progress.
In the end, it just means that the backbone of the modern company functions more poorly, and that revenues are potentially lower than they could be. Maybe the lower revenues are offset by the lower office rent costs; maybe the only real loss is the happiness (and loyalty/tenure) of the thought workers of the company.
This leads to another problem that we all suffer (via bugs, hacks, viruses, and otherwise lack of software quality) - that people running companies really have no concept what software is. I see no solution to this problem, since ultimately even the companies started by geeks get absorbed by bigger companies run by PHBs...