"Also the person that does the deal and develops the contract should not be the person managing it afterwards."

The study supports Gartner Inc. research which claims IT departments are shrinking as IT professionals move into specialists roles such as vendor management.

In the future, an IT career will not be about technology but managing a range of service providers.

By 2010, IT organizations in large and midsize companies will be 30 percent smaller, according to Diane Morello, vice president of research at Gartner.

"Partly driving this trend is outsourcing and IT automation," she said.