That department is essentially the red-headed stepchild. Think about it, what manager would want to be in charge of a team with no feature set timeline, milesto

That department is essentially the red-headed stepchild. Think about it, what manager would want to be in charge of a team with no feature set timeline, milestones, etc? It's exactly like you said, having a functional and working team that gets the day to day bugs fixed, it doesn't gain any clout in the company. Instead, you need to be in the AI or hardware division, so you can be respected as a 'pioneer.' It's all about values. Security and lets say, all submitted bugs fixed within 30 days...that would be a pioneering status for a company. Good luck getting approval for funding and staffing for that though in a company obsessed with those navel-gazing commercials about space travel and such...