This type of transition "is a tremendous shift" for developers, says Marc Cecere, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. As Freddie Mac moves to using packaged applications, he says, some modifications will be made to those systems, "and that's a different type of development" for those who will remain in programming-oriented roles.

The 80/20 rule

How much actual modification Freddie Mac makes to packaged applications it integrates is yet to be seen. That's because another key challenge that Petty and other IT managers face is to persuade business process owners to understand and accept the so-called 80/20 rule: recognizing the most important functionality provided by a packaged application (80%) and forgoing the less critical but nice-to-have features (20 percent). That's a big mind shift for business managers who are accustomed to having applications built to their specifications, says Cecere.

At Freddie Mac, accepting 80/20 will also require business owners to change some of their work processes to accommodate packaged applications rather than change the technology to fit existing practices, says Petty. She adds that the business owners she has worked with have been receptive to this concept so far, "but it's still early on" in the transition.

Even so, the IT group can point to a number of concrete steps it has taken. IT managers have reversed the IT project team mix from 60 percent contractors/40 percent staffers by adding 200 full-time IT employees and reducing the number of contractors in order to better retain and transfer project and technical knowledge within the organization.