From the comments, how software is like writing and why the typical meeting-punctuated office environment might necessarily not be the best environment for software writing:
"Here's another perfect scenario that I run into that upper management just doesn't seem to "get" that totally fits the "writer" scenario: fragmented time.
Upper management (and even middle management -- made up of the guys who never could figure out how to write a good "novel" in Java or C++ or Ruby or...) looks at your week and they go: "Okay... you had x hours of meetings, y hours of predictable admin time (timesheets, etc.), and x - y = z hours left over which was nearly 20 hours out of a 40 hour week!! HOW COME YOU'RE BEHIND THE DEADLINE!!"
What they don't "get" is that "20 hours" was 1 hour and 2 hours there over the course of a week. You can't write a book that way and you can't write a novel that way. You most definitely have "plots" in software and "subplots" and characters that need to be developed JUST like in writing. And you can't do it 1 hour here and 2 hours there. It's definitely NOT like "math" or "engineering." It's MUCH more art than science. I've been saying this for years.
You can't give me 1 hour here and 2 hours there. I need longer spans of time to do the "development" (which THERE is a more appropriate word, but in software we don't take that word the same way we do in writing.) if you want a solid plot that will not fail and supporting subplots and good characters... I NEED DEVELOPMENT TIME!! LOTS OF IT (in span of time)!!"
Don't you think that engineers and mathematicians also benefit from having uninteruppted time? Time to think, plan, retrospect, introspect? I think this would be true with any mental line of work.
"Here's another perfect scenario that I run into that upper management just doesn't seem to "get" that totally fits the "writer" scenario: fragmented time.
Upper management (and even middle management -- made up of the guys who never could figure out how to write a good "novel" in Java or C++ or Ruby or...) looks at your week and they go: "Okay... you had x hours of meetings, y hours of predictable admin time (timesheets, etc.), and x - y = z hours left over which was nearly 20 hours out of a 40 hour week!! HOW COME YOU'RE BEHIND THE DEADLINE!!"
What they don't "get" is that "20 hours" was 1 hour and 2 hours there over the course of a week. You can't write a book that way and you can't write a novel that way. You most definitely have "plots" in software and "subplots" and characters that need to be developed JUST like in writing. And you can't do it 1 hour here and 2 hours there. It's definitely NOT like "math" or "engineering." It's MUCH more art than science. I've been saying this for years.
You can't give me 1 hour here and 2 hours there. I need longer spans of time to do the "development" (which THERE is a more appropriate word, but in software we don't take that word the same way we do in writing.) if you want a solid plot that will not fail and supporting subplots and good characters... I NEED DEVELOPMENT TIME!! LOTS OF IT (in span of time)!!"