How to Outsource-Proof Your IT Department - CIO Magazine Oct 15,2004

"IT is steadily moving from the IT 'ivory tower' to being embedded analysts within the business entity or department. These analysts know the business and do the process redesign, modeling and analysis up front. Later it is handed off to temp consultants or outsourced to be coded to spec. That embedded analyst is not a manager or even a project manager - he is an engineer and architect laying out the plans. The stereotypical introverted hacker/coder may be horrified by the idea of being embedded with the users or user reps and dealing with politics of requirements negotiation between stakeholders, but it is indeed the next step to be 'outsource proof"