While a good post, the real issue is that non technical managers of technical projects is quickly becoming more of a risk than many projects can prudently accept.
The old, and unfair, characterization of programmers as smelly trolls that can't handle client interactions is more of a crutch for fools than a reality.
The truth is my clients complain bitterly about how they'd prefer to just talk directly to the dev's and not be bothered by the various hand waivers trying to justify their line item on an invoice. Often this is a great way to annoy the dev team, but it's a good expression of the perceived value of a non technical intermediary.
In the end the old truism of "You can't manage what you don't understand" still applies to this new fangled industry of software development.
That being said, ramping dev's up on management techniques is another challenge, for another internet rant.
The old, and unfair, characterization of programmers as smelly trolls that can't handle client interactions is more of a crutch for fools than a reality.
The truth is my clients complain bitterly about how they'd prefer to just talk directly to the dev's and not be bothered by the various hand waivers trying to justify their line item on an invoice. Often this is a great way to annoy the dev team, but it's a good expression of the perceived value of a non technical intermediary.
In the end the old truism of "You can't manage what you don't understand" still applies to this new fangled industry of software development.
That being said, ramping dev's up on management techniques is another challenge, for another internet rant.