Dr. Dobb’s on the easy dismissal of professional programming these days (emphasis mine):
This depreciation of our trade has roots in our trade, alas. COBOL was designed specifically to enable managers to run their own reports. The quixotic belief that non-programmers could do this is what still nourishes the BI field’s abuse of the term. This self-deception persists despite the now considerable body of evidence to the contrary. Everything is simple for the neophyte “programmer” until something unexpected happens. Then everything stops suddenly. Frequently, a professional programmer is summoned. If none is available, the project or report simply dies in its tracks. So ends the matter.
I have a different, even bleaker, instinct and prediction for this scenario: the team pushes blindly without the aid of a “professional” and, more importantly, without the broader perspective and arsenal of techniques an experienced programmer may bring to the situation. They push on no matter what, until some crazy, hair-brained solution or workaround is found; basically, until anything that works is found.