Development Abstraction Layer
The Development Abstraction Layer - Joel on Software
This really made me smile, particularly the quote "Management's primary responsibility to create the illusion that a software company can be run by writing code, because that's what programmers do. And while it would be great to have programmers who are also great at sales, graphic design, system administration, and cooking, it's unrealistic. Like teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." -- comparing developers to pigs, well that might stretch the analogy a bit, but still it is a good analogy.