[WalterBright]

Part of the job as a software engineer is to inform your manager as to the tradeoffs and the correct solution. Especially if well paid.

Surely, there are bosses who won't listen. But of the ones I've worked for, nearly all would listen to a reasonable explanation of how best to achieve the goals, and would approve recommendations from below.

If you've got a track record of being right, that helps a lot :-)

[pm90]

I agree. And the managers I've worked with: I'm glad they were there so that I personally didn't have to navigate the company hierarchy. But I strongly feel that the managers who were in the past good software developers have a much better idea of how to be managers...those who weren't, I've noticed a misplaced desire to prove themselves, which has hurt me personally.