I was involved in some new-office cost discussions at one point, and while I feel management likes to say open offices are about collaboration, it was really re

I was involved in some new-office cost discussions at one point, and while I feel management likes to say open offices are about collaboration, it was really really really about furniture and space costs and employee density. So one answer is given "up the chain" (cost/density) and another is given "down the chain" (collaboration), and that's not cool IMHO. My feeling with open offices is that sales/marketing people like it and most developers can't concentrate. It's not an extrovert issue -- I'm pretty extroverted at times, but coding is one of those things you need to minimize distractions while doing.