Deloitte Consulting partner Peter Lowes advocates a setup similar to what CTO Mark Resmer put in place at eCollege -- having staffers work at the remote outsourcing site, side by side with their outsourcing colleagues, in six-month rotations, and vice versa.

In addition, Lowes notes that management success is related to the amount of savings to be had by the outsourcing deal. When you save a lot, you can afford to reinvest in managing the relationship. For example, the Tier 1 offshore software developer companies are usually at a CMM Level 5, while U.S. companies are more often at CMM Level 1. Lowes says that if companies can reinvest the money they've saved by outsourcing to bring themselves up to a CMM Level 3, this will help greatly in bringing them onto the same page as their outsourcing partners.

-- Wexler is a freelance writer in California's Silicon Valley. Contact her at joanie@jwexler.com