my last job this was true. The Boss had run the company for 15 years, and he always told us "You nerds don't know how a business works, which is why I have to tell you what I want your programs to do." So I did everything his way, I took careful notes, and wrote down exactly the way he wanted things to work. I understood the way he did business and put it into my programs.

Two months later I was terminated, while my coworker that didn't follow what he said kept her job. Bizzaro! :)

The moral of the story is that if you put everything they want into a program, it is going to take longer than doing it your own way. When management wants a program done quick, if you do it their way, it will not be as quick because you have to slow down to make sure that things are exactly the way they want them.

Still I made that Supervisor Control Center screen in less than a day with the status being updated every 15 minutes, as he wanted it. When my coworker heard about it, she just rolled her eyes, but I told the boss that I could do it for him exactly the way he wants it, and I did.