> Delivering better customer facing web applications faster 
> will often have a direct cost benefit - better customer 
> satisfaction, more products purchased, etc, etc. I am looking 
> at the big picture, rather than just the cost of running the 
> IT department.

Most web applications aren't customer-facing, unless you buy into the idea
that people in other divisions of your enterprise are your "customers". Most
web applications exist solely to support internal functionality. Macromedia
and Adobe probably aren't typical businesses, in that respect.

And yes, delivering better web applications will often have a direct
benefit, but programmers can't deliver these applications by themselves.
They depend on many things outside their control, from the provisioning of
hardware to the completion of the QA process. So, no matter how productive
they are, they may not simply be able to deliver more applications.

> And programmers who are just glorified factory workers will 
> find their jobs going overseas. What, then, would you call 
> software developers who are sufficiently creative and 
> highly-skilled that they do not fit your factory worker 
> business model?

I think you're missing the point. Unless you're personally responsible for
every aspect of the development cycle, you work on an "assembly line" of
sorts. This doesn't strike me as that surprising an idea.

Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software
http://www.figleaf.com/

Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized
instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta,
Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location.
Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information!



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