The Changing Role of Client Project Management

Abstract

Strategic outsourcing has been defined as “the strategic decision of a business to stop carrying out an activity in-house” (Busi 2008, p. 8). While strategic outsourcing decisions are crafted by senior executives, they are executed by middle managers and staff who may not share the vision or enthusiasm of their senior leadership team. Research has found that senior executives often have an overly optimistic view of their strategic sourcing decisions because their direct reports significantly filter information (Lacity and Rottman 2008). Consider the following quote from an IT Architect in charge of executing an offshore outsourcing decision made by his senior leadership team: “You didn’t want to tell senior management the bad news too much because this was their baby and you didn’t want to say, ‘You have a terribly ugly baby!’” (Rottman and Lacity 2008, p. 272).