The best analogy I heard for communicating this to superiors is that programming is like doing a crossword puzzle. 95% of the time you're doing a crossword you're not writing but that doesn't mean you're not intensely working on solving the puzzle.
Re:The Case for Slow Programming
by GFK_of_xmaspast on Monday December 01, 2014 @07:49PM
(#8685080)
You need to get better at crosswords.
That's just my personal style, although I've never worked in "large" teams on a single codebase so can't comment on what styles work best in those situations.