...which would be true, if there weren't an obvious and palpable power distance between management and engineering in 99% of cases. It may be in vogue to prete

...which would be true, if there weren't an obvious and palpable power distance between management and engineering in 99% of cases. It may be in vogue to pretend that this power distance doesn't exist, but it does, and it means in practice that engineers often don't feel at liberty to be candid in these situations. This problem is compounded when managers don't meet the minimum technical skill bar to rationally assess the tradeoffs presented to them by engineers. If anything, good managers help ensure that this communication channel remains as bullshit-free as possible. Excellent managers actively elicit honest feedback, listen to it carefully, evaluate the risk / benefit tradeoffs, and insulate their reports from political consequences. Unfortunately, very few managers are excellent, which is a big part of why many engineers imagine management as this useless floppy vestigial apparatus. (I say this from personal experience as a consultant: I learned really, really quickly exactly what managers do for you once I no longer had any.)