Why does a customer even have the phone number or email address of a developer? That's why there are (account) managers.

Well, firstly, it can happen when one works as an independant contractor. I often am my account manager. Secondly, when I'm hired by an agency, I often work at the client's site alongside people with jobs related to my project. This is great, because it allows a fantastic level of communication between your client and the developer/consultant.

However, management does sometimes abuse the situation by "bugging" the developer about project updates to the point where more time is spent on status reports than is spent developing.

I have actually, on several occasions, made a status report like: 

[Project Status Update]

#lots of required manager-speak and details

Summary:
- I continue to debug the application, much as I have for the past sev
+eral days.
- I continue to write these updates, which causes further delay on pro
+ject work.

[download]

Suprisingly, every time I do that, the requirement for daily updates goes away. :)

radiantmatrix
require General::Disclaimer;
"Users are evil. All users are evil. Do not trust them. Perl specifically offers the -T switch because it knows users are evil." - japhy

In reply to Re^2: OT: Project clients by radiantmatrix
in thread OT: Project clients by simon.proctor

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