@AndyCanfield said:
Over my decades as a programmer, many times a superior has asked "What are you working on?" It may be my "boss", it may be the CEO of the company. I have learned to ALWAYS have several items ready as answers to that question. I say "I'm working primarily on A, and part-time on B, and waiting for an answer regarding C." Every item is of clear benefit to the company. He says "Good, carry on." and leaves me alone so I can go back to reading The Daily WTF
Now I work from home through the internet. I make sure that "The Man With The Money" hears from me once in a while; a final release, a beta release, a status report of some kind.
This is why God created burn down charts - as long as the line goes down everybody is happy, and one can inject a bit of drama by updating the estimated time left for a task, which creates a bump in the line. If a client/manager/PMO can be trained to use Agile, actuals disappear and one does not have to adapt its biorythm to a stupid project plan. This works well in real projects, less in maintenance/support mode.