Be afraid. Very afraid. Project managers can often appear like roadblocks to innovative solutions. In fact, I've lost arguments even when the benefits for a par

Be afraid. Very afraid. Project managers can often appear like roadblocks to innovative solutions. In fact, I've lost arguments even when the benefits for a particular technical solution are obvious and accepted. But maintenance is a big factor for those people. Not meeting a requirement is bad for your future prospects. Deceiving others is potentially disastrous for you current ones. What would be said if a future requirement, unknown to you, were for an ARM chipped portable controller for said instrumentation, as a student project. Bad move.