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. :)