Introducing Sourcements

In tro ducing Sourcemen ts ∗ Jan Bergstra 1 , 3 Guus Delen 2 Bas v an Vlijmen 1 1 Section Theory of Computer Science, Informatic s Institute, F a cu lty of Science, Univ ersity of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 2 V erdonc k, Klo o ster Associates, Z o etermeer, The Netherlands. 3 Department of Computer Science, Swansea Universit y , UK. Abstract Sourcing processes are d iscussed at a high abstraction lev el. A ded icated terminology is developed concerning general asp ects of sourcing. The term sourcemen t is coined to denote a building block for sourcing. No- tions of allocation, f u n ctional architecture and allocational architecture, equilibrium, and configuration are discussed. Limitations of th e concept of outsourcing are outlined. This theoretical work is meant to serv e as a p oint of departure fo r the subsequent developmen t of a d etailed theory of sourcing and sourcing transformations, which can be a tool for d ealing with practical applica- tions. 1 In tro du c tion The need f o r a theory o f sour cing transfo rmations from pr actice: given the abundance of s o urcing transfo rmation pro cesse s there is a need to formulate professiona l standards for these. Such s ta ndards ca n only b e put in pla c e when a theor y a bo ut so ur cing transfor ma tions is av ailable. Cle a rly that theo ry must be co mplemen ted with a v ast amount of practica l exp erience, for instance, co n- sensus a bo ut concepts m ust b e obtained, a nd it must be r o o ted in practice. This pap er is not rep orting such a co nsensus, but merely ab out the outline of a larger framework of thought in which such a theor y of sour cing transformations might b e em b edded. ∗ This wo r k has been p erfor med in the con text of the NW O pro ject Symbiosis whic h f ocuses on soft ware asset sourcing. The authors ac knowledge Karl de Leeuw, Sanne Nolst T r enit ´ e, and Arjen Sevenst er (Universit y of Amsterdam), f or di s cussions concerning outsourcing. When referencing to this paper we will use the following author names wi th initials as follows: J.A. Bergstra, G.P .A.J. Delen and S. F.M. v an Vlij m en. 1 1.1 Sourcing versus outsourcing Outsourcing is the most well-known sourcing transformatio n type and we will use “theor y of outso ur cing” a s a sho rthand for “ theory of so urcing transfo r ma- tions” and in some cases “outso ur cing” will be used as a sho r thand for “so urcing transformatio n”. These meanings are secondar y , how ever, with outsour cing de- noting a sp ecific (type of ) sour cing transforma tio n taken to b e the prima ry meaning o f the ter m. In Delen [8, 9 ] a survey is given o f definitions o f o utso urcing, ins ourcing, outtasking, in tas king, follow-up sourcing, back-sourcing, g r eenfield outsourcing and greenfield insourcing. 1 In addition to these notions m ultiple outso ur cing has b ecome common pra ctice, a definition thereo f can b e found in [5] where m ultiple outsour cing is subsumed under outsour cing. 2 In [4] it is argued that in the de finitio ns surveyed by Delen and in many later definitions am biguities concerning the concepts of insourcing and outso urcing are built in. 3 1.2 Outsourcing as a sourcing t ransformation An attempt has been made in [4] to disa m big uate the concepts of insourcing and outsourcing. W e will take that pap er as the p oint of depar tur e for further work in this pap er. The c en tr al design decision of [4] is that outso urcing and insourcing w ill refer to tra nsformations o f a state rather than to steady s tates existing b efore or ar r ived at after a s tate transfo r mation. The relev ant states are sometimes called sourc ing sta tes, o r simply sourcings. Thus outso urcing and also insour cing will be understo o d as transformatio ns of sourcing s. 4 The ma in a rgument for disambiguating the terminology that was put for- ward in [4] is that v er y clear meanings are needed if one intends to ana lyze, 1 As early references concerning sourcing Delen ment ions: [15], [19], [20]. 2 See [28] for a relatively old source for this matter. 3 In computer science, for some reason, many definitions are deficien t. In [ 22] it is explained that the experimental process of softw are testing lacks a definition i n the classical literature, and in [ 23] it is argued that even for the omnipresen t concept of an operating system theoretical informatics pro vides no inform ativ e definition. 4 In [10] a s ur v ey of theories of outsourcing i s given. Of the 16 theories survey ed 8 take outsourcing to b e an act of change rather than a qualification for a state of affairs. In [10] an attempt is made to com bine the disparate meanings that were found in these 16 theories. Their result is the foll owing: “Outsourcing is a strategic decision that en tails the external cont r acting of de- termined non-strategic activities or business pro cesses necessary for the manu- facture of go ods or the provision of services by means of agreemen ts or contract s with higher capability firms to undertak e those activities or business pro cesses, with the aim of impr o ving competitive adv an tage.” An ob vious virtue of this definition is that it is not a simplistic one-liner. On the con trary , it tells a sp ecific story , and it i s quite clear for that r eason. That clari ty also invite s cr iticism. W e will not follow this definition for several reasons: (i) outsourcing is not a decision, it may at b est b e the implement ation of a decision, (ii) the definition includes criteria f or success (that the insourcer m ust b e of a higher capabilit y), which must b e left to external observ er s , at least i n principle, and (iii) the aim is too narrow b ecause outsourcing can take place in the absence of comp etition. 2 describ e and define complex sourcing issues. Am biguity of meaning b y itself is unproblematic but the w ay for instance outsourc ing is used in writings o n sourcing indicates the o ccurrence of frequen t sw itches b etw een different mean- ings within the same pap er. In [4] the phrase ‘sourcing equilibrium’ has b een used to denote a state compr ising a num b er of units, ea c h p ossibly decomp osed int o subunits, together with sources and belong s-to relations, as w ell as usage relationships b etw een them. The work in [4] suggests a need for more precision concerning the deta ils of particula r sour cing transformatio ns. Pro viding a terminology that allows for a higher r esolution is a non-trivia l tas k by itself, how ever, and we have concluded that it req uires a s a pr e c ondition the av aila bilit y of a mor e expressive terminology for sourcing phenomena in general. The ob jective o f this paper is to provide such a general con text for a sourcing theory . This amounts to a fairly general story a bo ut the global co ncepts of sourcing and their interrelations. W e will not attempt to design more pr ecise terminology concerning sourcing prop er based o n this general developmen t here, howev er. Because detailed descriptions that may supp ort a b ottom-up development of sourcing theo r y ar e consider ed unav ailable at this stage and b ecause we fav or a top-down development o f the termino logy , a naive understa nding of the rele v ant notions, if necessary equipp ed with more detail from [4], suffices as the ba sis of what follows b elow. 2 Comparing sourc ing to in v esting as terms Inv esting can refer to an individual purchase of specific a ssets b y a sp e cified agent at a definite moment in time, based on g iven expecta tions, and in volving known or at least ma rginally ana lyzed ris k s. This description o f inv estment fo cuses on how a particular inv estment is made. Inv esting may also refer to a pro cess where a g iven amount of funds is s pr ead ov er an inv estment p or tfolio through a p er io d of time. Inv esting a sum inherited from a relative may tak e this form, and in this ca se the fo cus is on what is inv ested. A t a mor e distant level inv esting ma y indicate a metho d or s trategy which is applied by a unit, for instance a p ension fund, if it rece ives a strea m of funds. The incoming str eam of fund s is group ed into blo cks that are invested in the previously sp ecified sense of the term. The pro cess of inv esting, when successful, lea ds to so-called inv estments. Those inv estments in turn can be ass essed ag ainst the original purp oses of the inv esting units. In vesting may b e under sto o d as funds allo cation, with an in- vestmen t denoting a coherent part of (the result of ) such an a llo cation. The term inv estment ha s the following a m big uity: it may both refer to the (dynamic) act of inv es ting as w ell as to the (static) result of that act. If this ambiguit y is p otentially problematic the static meaning is usua lly pr eferred, how ever, together with a preference for a dynamic meaning o f inv es ting, so that inv esting results in an inv es tment. Many different terms exist and (the act of ) 3 inv esting may also be r eferred to as a purc ha se, an acquisition, a transactio n, o r simply as an inv estment decision. Inv esting will b e p erfor med in or der to pr ofit from the sale of the resulting in vestmen t in the future. Inv esting do es not, in general, imply an un b ounded commitment to holding the r esulting inv estment, by default it is r ather the other w ay around. Indeed, inv es ting is done with future disinvesting in mind, thoug h not necessarily w ith a planned mo men t for doing so . Sourcing as a term can b e understo o d in a wa y compara ble to in vesting. Sourcing concerns the allo cation of sources needed or used for pro ducing pro- cesses and ser vices. Sourcing inherits the ambiguit y of “allo c a ting” which b oth denotes a static “state of having been alloca ted” and the pr o cess that leads to that state. If the pro ces s is mean t, sourcing may also refer to a method fo r solving issues that reo ccur with some frequency . Sourcing may in volv e just a sp ecific s ource, or a pack ag e of sources and it can also r efer to a str ategic appro ach to reo ccurr ing sourcing issues. These three meanings a re similar to the thre e levels of mea ning that were distinguished for inv esting ab ov e. 5 Sourcing, if understo o d as the pro ces s o f sourcing, o r rather of source allo - cation, leads to a sta te. A conc is e ter m for indicating that kind o f state seems to be missing. W e propo se to use the term sour c ement for that purp ose, in spite of the fact that this term ha s different connota tio ns c lo se to the topic at hand. A b asic sour c emen t comprises only one so urce. Sources will not be distin- guished if they ar e always in the hand o f the same owner a nd under control of the sa me manage men t. 2.1 Sourcemen t: the need for an additional term When outso urcing a so urce is sometimes wra pped in a service. One may cla im that each source c a n in pr inciple b e wrapped in the servic e of pr oviding that source. At first sight the notion of a source se ems to b e the co rnerstone o f sourcing theory (so ur cing science) just as the no tio n of a service underlies ser- vice scienc e . (W e will discuss service s cience in more deta il in Section 3 be low.) But this is wrong : sourcing is intrinsically linked with units tha t ser ve as own- ers o f sources. The s implest notion of a (mo dule of ) sourcing is just that: a source assigned to an owner. That is als o the simplest form o f a sourcement. Sourcements, how ever are closed under compo sition, and for that reason so ur ce- men ts ca n have an a rchitecture, can b e engineer ed in a s y stematic fashion. Im- po rtantly , s ourcements m us t often be sufficiently co mprehensive to enable a n assessment of their business cas es from different p ers pectives. Having the term s o urcement a v aila ble, sourcing can be understo o d as the provision o f adequate sourcements. Stated diff er ently: the result o f so urcing transformatio ns, which ma y result from the application of a sourcing strategy is a sourcement, or if o ne so prefers a so ur cement p ortfolio. Of course adequacy of a 5 An inv estment may b e understo od as a well-defined asset w r apped in a well-understoo d con text. That wil l hold for a source as well in general. 4 sourcement p ortfolio is assessed in terms of business o b jectives which a t the same time are the drivers of a chieving sourcing transfor ma tions and of developing sourcing str ategies. Where ser vice engineering and ser vice provision lead to the being in place of a service, sourc e ment eng ineering and sour cement provision (that is sourcing) lead to the b eing in place o f a sourcement. Once equipped with the notion of sourcement, outsourcing can be under- sto o d as a sourcement trans fo rmation which is of a do minant ly o utso urcing character, that is: 1. the outsourcing unit discontin ues ownership of s ome so urces (disp oses of some so urcements fro m its sourcement p ortfolio) and, 2. instead of the dispo sed sourcements new source ments a pp ea r (in the source- men t ar chitecture after the transfo rmation) that allo cate equiv alent o r in some way co rresp onding (though p erha ps more, or in r a re cases e ven less, effective) s ources to other units. The conditions 1 and 2 do not define o utso urcing b eca us e ther e is no guar- antee that the outsourcing unit c a n keep its mission protected. W e return to that matter la ter in mor e detail. Instea d 1 and 2 merely serve the purpo se of narrowing down the class of s o urcement tra ns formations that ca n b e classified as o utso urcings. These considerations justify the use of sourcemen t as a basic term in the sourcing theory jar gon, except for the fac t that alter native terms or phrases might express the sa me intuition in a b etter wa y . F or that reas on we hav e listed some alter natives below, none of which, how ever, we consider sup erior to sourcement at least for the purp oses just outlined. 2.2 Alternativ e terms and phrases Several alter natives can be found for s o urcement: 1. sour cing arra ngement, 2. sour ce alloc a tion, (notice that so urce allo cation ma y also denote the act of a llo cating, while source de-allo cation must denote a tra ns ition), 3. sour cing mo dule (o r : sour ce a llo cation mo dule), 4. sour ce configur ation (the pro cess of developing a nd ma intaining so urce allo cations may then b e c a lled sour ce c o nfiguration mana g ement) , 5. sour cing configuratio n, 6. lo cal sourcing equilibr ium. W e will assume that ea ch o f these phra ses can be used as an alter native to sourcement. Important concepts o ften hav e different wordings in o rder to allow for flexible language . 5 The pro po sal to equate these phr ases with sourcement ma inly implies that none of these should b e burdened with a clear ly different meaning in the co ntext of sour cing, at least not in any further developmen t of s ourcing/o utsourcing theory that takes this pap er ’s introduction of the notion of a sourcement as a po in t of de pa rture. 2.3 Gran ularit y of sourcemen t I The term inv es tment exis ts b esides the phr ase in vestment po rtfolio. It is a mat- ter of tas te to s ome exten t from what po int onw ards an investmen t is pre fer ably seen as an inv estment por tfolio. This is a matter of granularit y . It would b e quite uncommon to consider each individua l sto ck of a pa rticular fund av ailable on the sto ck mar ket as a n individual inv estment and their grouping toge ther as a n inv estment p ortfolio. Reasonable gra nularity indica tes tha t it is more plausible to conside r the whole of sto cks of the sa me fund or corp oration as a single inv estment. The phrase inv estment p ortfolio allows a modular appr oach to inv estment analysis and manag ement. Similar consideration ca n b e made a b out sourcements. O nc e sourcements hav e been introduce d as coherent source allo ca tions “ sourcement p ortfolio” emerges as a pla usible referenc e to co m binatio ns o f so urcements. Whether in a sp ecific context ther e is a need fo r that form o f mo dularity , and where bo und- aries mu s t b e placed a re matter s that must be dealt with by a fine- grained theory of sourcing. A t a coars e -grained level no more can b e said than that sourcements may be so extensive that it is more plausible to refer to them as sourcement p ortfolio s . 2.4 Gran ularit y of sourcemen t I I As it sta nds sourc ing transforma tio ns in volve human oper ation. Tha t is ea ch successive step involv es meticulous decision ma king. Computer supp ort of these decisions is plausible but full a utomation is not. If a unit makes us e of gr id computing and the grid management system decides to r un an executable co de on a remote machine instead o f on its orig inal host owned by the unit, that is not an insta nce of outsourcing altho ug h it co mes close. The differe nc e is that no human decision making pro cess is taking place. Instead the e ntire gr id must be c o nsidered a single sour ce and mo ving task s around is a part of its pr op er functionality . Thu s sourcing theor y is ab out human centered, p erhaps also c omputer sup- po rted, decis ion ma king ab out changes that ar e no t alr eady cov ere d by the functionality of an e x isting source of a combination o f sources, per haps inv olv- ing human employ ees who per form fully sp ecified tasks a nd take w ell- understo o d resource allo c ation decisions. All these issues are rela tiv e to the str ucture of a unit. Decisions about sourcing will by necessit y inv olve the top-management of that unit. If a unit’s top-mana gement is not involv ed in a source a llo c ation decision (e.g . hiring a v an to tr a nsp ort so me equipment for a unique o ccasion) 6 then seen from the level of the unit that decision takes place as a co nsequence of norma l op erationa l pr o curement pro ce s ses. 3 Service S cience: a comp etitor or an ally? When contemplating the development o f sourcing theory an obvious role mo del is ser vice science a s it ha s b e e n for m ula ted b y many authors since aro und 1995, with IBM based r esearchers in a s ustained leading role. Not only is ser v ice science a r ole mo del for “sour c ing science”, it is in fact so closely connected to the topic of sourcing that one even needs to justify the need for a stor y ab out sourcing outside service science. In dee d every source can be wra pped in the ser vice o f providing that source. Her e w e assume that a service has an owner (producer , hos t). That fact is often left implicit but it tra nspires clear ly from the definition used in [21] whic h clearly spe a ks o f a service as a feature of a net worked s ystem where o ne or more systems a re capable of improving the state of another system. W e as s ume that “a nother” refers to a real form of iden tity whic h may and is even lik ely to inv olve differ ences of mission and ob jectives. In addition we assume that complementary to another the se lf is not ano n ymo us. 6 Now service science has a significant adv antage ov er s o urcing theor y in terms of its stag e of developmen t. F ollowing the work of V argo and Lusch sta rting with [26 ] so-ca lled Ser vice-dominant log ic (S-D logic) has b een develop ed. S-D logic cla rifies how one might p erceive service as dominant ov er go o ds. The dominance o f go o ds (G-D logic) is claimed to ha ve bee n unc hallenged from the ea rly days of eco nomic science. But that is now changing. Who e ver a dher es S-D logic is likely to co nsider so urcing a theme subsumed under service science. In spite of the a ttraction of S-D logic we sug gest that sourcements can b e considere d do minan t. This is simply the classical viewp oint that owners o f the means of pro ductio n are the decisive factor. A source is a comp onent o f a sourcement or of a s ervice. It serves as a mea ns of pro duction in pro cesses with inputs and outputs qualitatively differing from the sour ce. S-D logic explains how services can b e dominant ov er go o ds, but the role of go o ds is fully a c k nowledged. Indeed knowledge a bo ut ser vices is an addition to but not a repla cement of k nowledge a bo ut go o ds. A s o urcement-dominan t logic may explain circumstances where sour cements are dominan t over se r vices and still accommo date the cr ucial importa nce of a service o riented p ersp ective when fruitful. W e will not prop ose to replace S- D logic by Sourcement-dominan t lo g ic but it might be an a ddition to it which leads to a mor e balance d view. 7 6 An anon ymous self is usually assumed in the ob jects and threads created during the run of a pr ogram wr itten i n an ob ject orien ted pr ogramm ing l anguage. 7 Sourcemen t-dominant logic places an emphasis on R BV, the resource-based view of the firm as prop osed by [ 27]. 7 3.1 Sourcemen t-dominan t logic Here ar e tw o examples where it is r easonable to a ttr ibute domina nc e o f the sourcing per spe ctiv e ov er the service (provision) p er s pective. With thes e ex- amples in mind the subsequen t listing of fundamen ta l premises for an (as yet hypothetical) Sour cement - dominant log ic c a n b e apprecia ted. 3.1.1 Highly skille d p erso nnel In a professiona l spo rts team, or in a n ac ademic resear ch institution, highly trained a nd probably ta len ted personnel ma y b e view ed as sources. T ogether with a team a ffiliation a member comprises a sourc e ment. Of course a skilled team player mig ht b e understo o d as someo ne offering a ser v ice to his/her col- league team mates. B ut that is a secondar y p ersp ective, the sour cement p er- sp ective, involving play ers who may hav e binding c o nt r acts with their tea m managers , p erhaps with a duratio n of several years, is more convincing. 3.1.2 Cloud computing Now adays cloud co mputing is extr e mely fashionable. Obviously a user of a cloud uses a servic e and for that rea son, seen from its users , cloud computing can b e considered a topic in s ervice sc ience. In pr actice a cloud is implemented on a pr o prietary g r id which contains one or mo re highly efficien t c o mputing a nd data sto r age c en ter s. Only parties who own massive low cost pro cessing ca n o ffer the services exp ected from a cloud provider with comp etitive pric es. Thus, although the cloud is sold as a ser vice or a pack age of services, it is based o n the av ailability o f a very scar ce source: the highly pro ductiv e and efficient data proces sing a nd storage cen ter. In the context of cloud computing the s to ry of ser vices s imply hides (or even obscures on purpose) the do minant economy of scale offered by ce n tr a lized computing per formed for a heter ogeneous g roup of clients in different parts of the world. 3.1.3 F undamenta l Premises of Sourcemen t-dominant logi c Some fundamental premises of So ur cement-dominan t logic can b e listed: 1. A source type is essential fo r a pro ces s or for a service if any ar c hitectur e for that pro c ess or service features o ne or mo re sources of that type. A highly comp etitive unit that provides so urces or pro cesses needs to ensur e that it makes use o f mos t effective sources of neces sary source types, even if that requir es outsour cing. 2. A sourcing strategy must allow a flexible metho d to a dapt the s ourcement po rtfolio when new insta nce s of essential s ources emerg e inside or outside a unit. 3. Source ments containing highly efficient sour ces are in principle a candidate for b eing offered as a service to other units as well. 8 4. Control over a highly e fficien t so urcement is alwa ys a ca ndidate for being a significant part o f a unit’s mission. (Even if the sour cement serves mer ely as a to ol for its orig inal mission.) 5. Assuming tha t a unit is perma ne ntly optimizing (strengthening) the so urce- men t p ortfolio that it ma kes use of for the re a lization of its mission, then at any time its missio n may switc h to one in which sourc e men t ownership and exploitation takes priority ov er prev io us missions . If this insta bilit y is cast as a step towards subscribing to a service dominant logic that po sition do es not affect the diagnosis that the qualit y of the sources has b een driving the unit tow ar ds that step. 6. If a very effective sour cement is not used in a b est p ossible wa y , in a comp etitiv e mar ket the sourcement is likely not to b e cost effective. 3.2 Sourcemen t usage versus service usage A unit may make use of a service o ffer ed and delivered b y a no ther unit. If this use is incidental we do not sp eak of external sources when r e ferring to the sources owned and made use of by the unit offering the ser vice (for producing the se r vice). The notion of a s ource involv es an asp ect o f p ermanency which is not requir ed when use is made of a service. Thu s if mission critical sourcements are said to b e outsource d 8 in fav or of the usage of a servic e hosted by another unit, it may b e the case that at a clos er insp e ction these s ourcements a re simply disco n tinued and a service contract is signed a s a c o mpens a tory measur e. 4 Limits of (out) sour c ing As a practice and field of exp ertise, sour cing has develop ed from the narrower practice o f o utsourcing and its counterpart a ctivity of insour cing. Se e for in- stance [12] for an extensive systematic discuss ion on how outsour cing and in- sourcing fit in a co mpany’s s tr ategy , as w ell as the use of sourcing a s a more general term. So urcing lacks the directio nal asymmetry of o utsourcing and in- sourcing. And indeed, sour cing is nowada ys often felt to b e mor e gener al where as a field o f exp ertise outsourcing (or even outsourcing plus insourcing) is con- sidered to b e to o nar row for covering an exp erts pro fessional identit y . How ever we will defend that o utsourcing must not b e s ubsumed under so urc- ing as a field o f exp er tise, in spite of the fa c t that the ac tivities s ubsumed under outsourcing, insourcing, backsourcing, and follow-up outso urcing may not co n- stitute an autonomous field o f exp ertise either. 9 8 It is assumed that a sourcemen t is outsourced if all of its sources are outsourced. 9 If, how ev er, one understands outsourcing as the state of having b een outsourced, or , ev en more demanding as some aut hors do, as (i) having been outsourced, while (ii ) that goes against common practice, then outsourcing can b e subsumed under s our ci ng. Our dynamic int erpr etation of outsourcing preven ts this, how eve r . 9 Here are s ome ess en tia l asp ects of outsourcing w hich are less prominent in sourcing: Human activity b ase d. O utsourcing inv olves or ganizationa l ch a nge that re- quires sp ecific human sup erv is ion and management attention. It ca nnot be automa ted by definition. Mission sen sitive. O utsourcing is limited b y considera tions of unit mission, having to do with b eing mission (co)defining, a notion that will be ex - plained b elow. Suc h consider ations may imply that trans fer ring a source- men t to ano ther unit and turning its origina l use in to the use of a service wrapp ed a round the sour ce by its new owner may no t qualify a s an out- sourcing. R elevanc e sensitive. If the r esulting service is made use of only incident a lly but not as a normal part of the unit’s o pe r ations it is mo re plausible to hold the view tha t the sourcement’s existence has b een discontin ued, per haps in combin a tion with it having b een sold to another unit. Th us, outsourcing a sourcement mak es sense only if it is used often, which is close to be ing mission cr itical. W e us e the weaker term r e le v ance a nd find that a s a concept outsourcing is relev ance se nsitive. Symmetrically insourcing fea tures asp e cts outside sourcing such as: (i) what is the impact on the identit y o f the insourcing organization? (ii) must it sha rp en its mission sta temen t after insourcing? (iii) should it s ubsequently outsource what b ecame side-lined as a consequence?, and (iv) m ust it b e on the lo okout for inso urcing options in o r der to strengthen its cor e comp etence ba se? The q uestion why and when outsourcing is an optio n is b est appro ached in ter ms o f exa mples. Finding a general story that cov ers the examples is of secondary imp or tance. 4.1 (Non)-outsourceabilit y b y example F or each organiza tion or type of o rganizatio n one may ask several questio ns ab out its p otential for s o urcing: 1. Which sources or ac tivities can b e outsourced? F or instance: • Can the quest for innov a tio n of a co re pro cess b e outsourced? (Y es, in an industry which is dominated by c apital inv estments, for instance the ex ploitation of a tunnel or o f a railway; no, in a n industr y where innov ative c a pacity is itself is abso lutely necessary for co mpetitive- ness, for instance in mobile phone manu fa c turing.) • Can a studen t o utso urce r eading the textbo o k s? (Y es, if the pr oblem is to find so me t yp e of quotes; no, if the ob jective is to prepare for passing an exam.) 10 2. Where are the limits of outsourcing? F o r instance : • A universit y may feel the need to p erfo rm r esearch and teaching “itself ” . • Another university may b e happy to o utso urce all of its teaching activities but insist that examination is not outsourced. • Y et another institution of higher educa tion may decide to outsource its r esearch activities and fo cus on teaching ex clusively • In particular if unit U o utso urces its research activities then U ma y still b e a ctive in fund-raising for re search and in distributing the funds r a ised to researchers fr om other institutions. • A mountaineer can o utsource track finding (by making use of the ser- vice of a guide), but (s)he cannot outsource walking (b y being ca rried around). It is gener ally considere d imp erative tha t a mountaineer is self-propag ating o nc e having ar r ived a t one of the agreed base p oints of the mountain under a ttac k . • Consider a household H which op erates quite indep endently from other households, though it needs to buy all its fo o d. It is intu- itively clear that the entire task (say s ) of foo d preparatio n can b e outsourced from unit H to some ser vice provider P s , say another household. Whether or not that is economically feasible is another matter, but it can b e done. O n the other hand consuming the fo o d cannot p oss ibly b e outsour c ed. Howev er obvious this may b e, it indi- cates that some pro cesses and activities can b e outso ur ced in principle whereas other are no t ca pable o f being outsour ced. F or this reason each so urcing strategy needs to depart from a clear mission state- men t for a unit. 10 It must b e known which a ctivities or sources must a unit pr eserve b ecause outsourcing those leads to a br e ach of the mission sta temen t. Such sources by definition ca nnot b e outsourc ed. • In [17] it is suggested that a compan y may hav e infor mational core comp etences w hich may reside in the development pro cess o f mis s ion- critical systems. This ability will probably not b e outsourced a ccord- ing to [17]. 11 4.2 Mission c o-defining sourcemen ts can’t b e out sourc ed Summarizing what was presented ab ove the following is obtained: a sourcement is mission defining for a unit if outso urcing it ca nno t b e done without adapting the unit’s mission, and if in addition it is the only source o wned b y the unit 10 In [12] a diagnostic tool is presen ted which cent ers around determining a compan y’s mis- sion. This m ethod supp orts so-called con tinuou s strategic sourcing. 11 In [14] another conclusion i s drawn, how ev er. Mission cri tical softw are f or a s pecific unit is likely to b e less amenable f or commodity outsourcing and s pecific methods are needed to ac hieve b est of breed multi-v endor outsourcing arr angemen ts. The pap er pr o vides a graphic method f or visualizing the temporal evolution of suc h arr angemen ts. 11 with that pr op erty . A sourc e men t is miss ion co-defining if outso ur cing it cannot be do ne witho ut adapting the unit’s mission and if it shar es that privileg e with one or more other sourc e men ts. Mission (co-)defining sourcement s are lik ely to b e missio n cr itical as well, but not conv er sely . Needles s to s ay that for an application of the criterio n o f being non missio n (co-)defining, for not outsourcing a so urce, a unit must know its o wn mission, and only then it can be deter mined whic h of its sourcements are mission (co-)defining as well as mission cr itical. Whether t he design and eng ineering of sourcements which are mis s ion co- defining and miss io n c ritical, inv olves any informatio na l cor e comp etences is yet another matter. F or the questions we ha ve just p osed what matters is more fo cused, ho wever: is the ability to develop a c ertain mission-critica l s ystem itself part of the mission to the extent that it is miss ion co-defining, only then outsourcing that co mpetence is to be re jected as a matter of principle b eca use of the threat it p ose s to the unit’s identit y . Here we find a conceptual difficulty: some so urcing transformatio ns may fail to be labeled as outsourcing merely b ecause the sources inv olved ar e mission (co-)defining. But that is a sub jective criterion. It b eco mes po ssible that the concept of outsour cing is v aria ble due to c ha nges in a unit’s visio n concerning its mission. W e have no c lear r esp onse to this matter o therwise than to insist that the very concept of outsourcing is highly dep endent on unit ident ities , a nd that an identit y is more than a mere co de or name. It inv olves a vision and a mission statement as w ell. F or this r eason the no tion of o utsourcing is conceptually more dema nding than the mis s ion neutral notion o f sour cing. 5 Arc hitecture Computer scie nce s hows tw o ma jor uses of the term ar chit ec tur e: computer architecture, which is ab out ho w the physical comp o nent s of a computer are put together and softw a r e architecture which co ncerns the co mp os itio n of softw are comp onents. When both aspects are intert wined one often sp eaks o f sys tems architecture. The basic building blo ck of ar chit ec tur al terminology in co mputing is usually a comp onent. 5.1 Systems architecture for sourcing Systems ar chit ec ture which plays a role in sour cing co mbines asp ects of b oth lines of thought. One ma y imagine a n a rchitecture of a unit or of group of units and sour cement s therein a s: • A desc r iption of a num b er of sources giving informatio n ab out their units and abo ut communication channels and use rela tio ns b etw een them. • Such a descr iption is no rmative in the sense that it may be understoo d as a s pec ifica tion of what the designer intended to build, rather than as a mere ana tomy base d snapshot of observed structure. 12 • Such a descr iption usually pr edates the ar tifacts it desc rib es (though that need not always b e the case: r e verse architecting pro duces a hypothesis concerning what was intended when the ar tifact was pro duce d). What rema ins o f such a n ar ch itectur e if the information a bo ut units is forgo t- ten? The most pla usible a nswer is that a ba s ic sour c e after forgetting all units bec omes a co mpo nen t of the mor e a bstract arc hitectur e. 12 Stated differen tly the link betw een co n ventional stories a b out architecture and architectural sto- ries concerning sour c ing is that a sourcement is a comp onent equipp ed with a unit serving as its owner a nd having con tro l over its actio ns (at leas t a t some level of abstraction). 5.2 Arc hitec t ure based sourcing A num b er of questions can be p osed concerning the role that ar chitecture may play for the solution of sourcing pr o blems. 1. Assuming that some sp ecific theory o f systems ar chitectu r e is esp ecially effective for sour cing, one may as k what theor y results a fter forgetting the difference of units. Giv en the v ast literature o n ar chitecture in computing, it is ha r d to b elieve that a nov el theory o f architecture is found that wa y , and for that r eason one may turn the questio n around: which theory of systems architecture can b e be s t expanded with the phenomenon of units as to obtain an arc hitectur al met ho d suita ble for dealing with s ourcing problems? 2. Another question is: given an architectural design of a s ystem, how and why can it b e the case that its r ealization may b e b est distributed over a nu mber o f different units? 3. T o what extent is a s ourcing problem (that is the pr oblem to find an adequate sour cing plan for some unit or for a part of a unit) for some sp e- cific pe rio d given the unit’s mission and targe ts pr imarily an architectural problem, with the distribution of s ources over v a rious units b eing only of secondary imp or tance? In any ca se, if a sour cing transforma tion is designed, some a rchitectural task needs to be p erformed assuming that the transition is to b e realized in a planned way and preferably a lso in an evidence bas e d fashion. What seems to b e rather op en is to wha t extent this task nee ds to b e ba s ed on mo der n metho ds of hardw ar e and so ftw a r e ar c hitectur e. In small a nd medium size en terpris es a for ma lized and strictly metho dolog ic a l approach to such ar ch itectur al tasks seems no t to prev ail at this moment. In very large organizations that may b e different. 12 When in a basic sourcemen t the unit is forgotte n (remo ved, abstracted from) si mply a source results. That source, how ev er, plays the role of a comp onent in the corresp onding unit-less arc hitecture. 13 5.3 Arc hitec t ure w on’t solve all problems A difficulty with ar chitectural techniques taken from softw are engineering or computer architecture is that one cannot expect these tec hniques to pro duce predictions on how a business will pro c eed after an intended so ur cing trans- formation has b een brought a bo ut by means of a planned tr ansition. While architectural co ncepts a re definitely useful for sp ecifying where to go , these may b e less helpful when it must be judged wh y a certa in tra nsition is pro f- itable, or even if its fea sibilit y must be a ssessed. F or this rea son it ca nnot be claimed that ar c hitectur e is the intellectual core of so urcing to the same extent as that might ho ld for hardware o r softw ar e design. 5.4 Sourcing patterns In softw ar e engineering softw are patterns ha ve beco me very popular . Mak ing an inv entory o f sourcing patterns might be as useful as an inv entory o f softw are patterns has prov ed to be. O nly ser ving as indica tive e x amples s o me so ur cing patterns a re mentioned b elow. 1. The most prominent sourcing pattern is that of a sha red service ce nter within a unit. 2. A computing grid ba s ed cloud. 3. A third pattern is a comp etence po ol. In a c ompe tence p o ol per sonnel with a sp ecific rang e of comp etences is wrapp ed in a single s ervice o ffered by an exter na l unit. 6 T ransformat ion and transition A sourcing transformation (or sour cement transformatio n which is the same) may in volve a source remov al, a s ource introduction, a so urce allo cation (to some unit), a s o urce de-allo c ation (fro m s ome unit), a nd more g enerally s teps that r esult in source re - allo cation. The pro cess that ac hieves a transformation is called a transition. A tra nsi- tion follows a plan whic h is like an algor ithm. Its design as well as its execution is per formed by hu ma n op era tors, and these op erator s may b e found in yet another unit which disapp ears from the scene once the tr ansition is done. Pla nning and per forming the transition, given the s p ecifica tion of a s ourcement transfo rma- tion, is itself a tas k which s eems to induce a sourc ing is sue. That is misguided, how ever, bec a use so urcing is ab out enabling metho ds for pr imary pro ces ses of units a nd ena cting its own transition is not one of a n y units pr imary pr o cesses. Enacting the transition of other units can v er y well b e among a unit’s pri- mary pro cesses and in that case pa r ts o f that work may b e outsourced. When for instance, ano ther unit is asked to provide part of the work on a sustained basis, that may b e a prop er cas e of outsourcing . 14 An yhow, if consulta n ts o r leg al exp erts a re hired to plan and p erfor m a tra n- sition in order to ac hieve an intended sour cement trans formation, suc h f o rces are most plausibly not seen a s s ources, b ecause o f their incidental inv o lvemen t. Because sourcing tra ns itions are effected in a planned fashion b y the a ction of a human orga nization, it is plausible tha t a transition itself mov es throug h a formalized life-cycle. In fact each unit source rela tion p erco lates through some life-cycle, which may of may no t hav e b een made explicit. F or a n informal discussion of life-cycles we refer to [3] a nd for an instant ia tion of a life-cycle mo del for so urcing we men tio n the PO N sourc ing -cycle of [24]. The description of a s ourcing transfor mation may b e c o nsidered a control co de in the sens e of [2] and the org anization that carries out its realization serv e s a s , or may b e compared to, its executing ma chinery . If different sourcing tra nsitions are a ctive in parallel the risk of unexp ected and unanalyzed feature interaction (see for instance [16]) b ecomes hig h. Carrying out transitions correctly is often s o complex that it obscur e s the (architectural) design problem that needs to b e solved whe n reallo cating source s . In particular gov ernmental units r equired to a pply the E ur op ean T ender Pr o cess may feel themselves c o mpelle d to pay more atten tio n to the co r rect executability of a highly for malized tendering pro cess than to finding the b est p os sible solution to their sourc ing problems. 7 Equilibrium When consider ing a co mm unity of hundreds or even thousands of units it is very likely that sourcement transitions take place all the time. Thus an equilibrium, understo o d in ter ms of sour cement s being fixe d and stable, is unlikely to exist beyond some critical size (or b elow some critical size dep ending on the kind of equilibrium one is lo oking fo r). F o r a smaller unit, or for a smaller s ubunit of a large unit, it is lik ely , ho wever, that its s ourcement o r so urcement p ortfolio remains stable (that is unchanged) for extensive p erio ds of time. That situa tion will b e referr ed to as a lo c a l sour c ing (or so urcement) equilibrium. A global sour cing equilibrium is likely to exist only if some a bstraction is made. In a W alras ian equilibrium for micro-economics it is prices and trade volumes r ather than ownership or distribution of a ssets which is stable dur ing some p erio d. F or a globa l sour c ing equilibrium to make sense so me abstra ction m us t be found, for instanc e the fraction of sour ces of a specific t yp e which a r e po sitioned outside the unit whose pr imary pro cess dep e nds o n these sour ces, or the fraction of s ourcing transforma tions which are outsourc ing tra nsformations. Of course as outsourcing ca n b e seen as an economic transac tio n av er age prices of the r esulting service deliveries, or o f the av er age co st o f making a transition, may also b e used to obtain a lev el of abs traction which admits fo r a v alid definition o f equilibrium states. A t the micro scale, w her e individual units or subunits ar e consider ed we hav e micr oscopic sourcing theor y . At the micro level one imag ines that the sourcement po rtfolio o f a (sub)unit moves fro m lo ca l equilibrium to lo cal equi- 15 librium w hile tra nsition pha ses ar e sequentialized and last short in compariso n to the equilibrium phases. But even at the level of a unit for which further de- comp osition into subunits is unreas onable b ecause of its coherent management structure it is quite conceiv able that several sourcing transitions ar e carried out concurrently . Threa d algebr a as for mu la ted in [1] may b e used a s a conceptual mo del for the form of m ulti-threa ded concurrency which takes place when the same unit is executing s e veral tra ns itions in pa rallel. W or king tow ards an equilibrium can b e taken as the conceptual p oint of departure for system a dministration (see [7]). System administration is rela ted to IT sourcing , thoug h it need no t exclus ively consist of man p ow ered a ctions. 8 P olitical econom y Sourcing a s a socia l phenomenon deser ves its o wn his to riogra ph y . W e will not try to write it here, but we put forward that a trend to wards outsourcing marks the b eginning of a p erio d in whic h many orga nizations need to have explicit and comp etitiv e sourcing p olicies. In Delen [8 ] one finds that an outsourcing decision requires that b oth out- sourcers and insource r s have an economic in teres t in the deal, and even s tr onger they need to have a business case ra tionalizing that interest and they need to know a nd to understand each o ther’s business cas e. 13 As a so cial pheno menon this require ment may b e understo o d as the hypothesis that the outsourcing trend finds its orig in in the developmen t of nov el w ays for doing business in a m utually profitable wa y . W e will put for ward a ra ther differen t motive with ro ots in the a nalysis of p olitical eco nomy due to Ma rx. Rather than viewing Ma rx a s the instigator of faile d mo dels such a s the communism of the pr evious century , he ma y b e co nsidered a shar p obs erver of the emer ging ca pitalism. In that quality he has b een and s till is very v is ible in economics. Marx assumed that an original split (separation) b etw een labor and capi- tal ( Urspr ¨ ungiche T r ennung see [6]) prepa res a s etting where workers pro duce added v alue ( Mehrwert ), whic h in fa c t can only b e meas ured by means o f money , and where the ca pitalists, that is the owners of the means of pro duction, ac- cum ula te the ca pital gains that accr ue from taking the added v alue created by the workers’ efforts. Marx thought that not only workers should b e ent itled to a significan t share of the added v alue, but that in addition they ought to be freed from (i) the dependence res ulting fro m no t b e ing owners of the means of pr o duction needed for their work, and fro m (ii) the deg radation of their working conditions including a loss o f per sp ective on autonomo us a nd cr eative self-realiza tion which he exp ected to result from the mentioned dep endence. 14 13 This requiremen t is quite strong and it must p erhaps b e relaxed to requiring that out- sourcer and insourcer both understand wh y the deal complies with the eac h other’s missions. 14 This is a p erplexing view by any means because he also considered the original split par t and its disman tli ng of a necessary and inevitable dev elopment, to the extent that he would applaud actions taken to wards i ts demise taking pl ace. He though t that only after the spli t 16 W e will not fo cus attention on thes e p essimistic exp ectations co ncerning working class living conditio ns . Remark ably capitalism has s hown a for midable ability to av oid the Marxian pr edictions to co me true. 15 In fact and equally remark ably in the cen tury a fter Marx’s death so-called soc ia lism and its close relative communism came c lo ser to th e rea liz ation of the predicted “V erelen- dung”. 16 The critical p oint for our t o pic is the observ a tion that systematically fac- torizing out similar functionalities from a rang e o f different but comparable economic pro ces ses can form the basis of the constructio n of capital. So if so me kind o f task o r activity can b e extra cted from a large num b e r of units and can be combined tog ether into a new unit, that unit can, after some fur ther inno- v a tive developmen t, r epresent new v alue and it can b ecome a lo cus of capital accumulation. 17 8.1 Outsourcing as a driving force of innov ation The crucial point is that se emingly simple or mo dest tas ks when facto red out from a sufficiently lar ge num b er of units can b e gro uped together in to new units which can g row into specta cular accumulations of sophistication, effectiv eness and ultimately of capital. If one as sumes that the p otential for accumulation of capital can itself b e a driving force it beco mes clear that insource bus ine s s cases ma y b e quite weak from outsour cer’s p ersp ectives, thus p otentially compromising one of the rules laid down in [8] (r ules that are calle d here: decision and control factors). This may so und obscur e as if the accumulation of capital is a primar y ob jective which gov erns the developmen t of business a rchitecture. T ha t may b e disputed at first sight, but it ca nno t b e denied that by building a hig h profile and c a pital the w orker would develop the efficien t metho ds of working needed to effect the progress from which from whic h more mature stages of dev elopment migh t then b e obtained. 15 Many works hav e b een devoted to this matter in a great v ariety of forms. W e mention [18] as an example. 16 A rather sceptical assessment of the intellectu al legacy of Marx can b e found in [25]. A suggestion that Marx ma y still constitut e an i ncen tive f or current research can be found in [29]. These papers indicate that all official M arxisms ar e now gone and a part of history . At the same time it is clarified that Marxi sm cannot exist anymore as a coheren t philosoph y b ecause Marx’ wr itings show too man y inconsistencies. A most imp ortant inconsistency c oncerns his view that f armers must become f ree in tw o sim ultaneous senses: free as citizens, and free from the burden of ownership of the means of pr oduction (that is the land). This dual freedom is necessary f or the members of the working class in order to fo cus entirely on the improv ed organization of productive forces whic h in turn will b e a precondition for o vercoming capitalism i n fav or of so cialism. These views hav e been misused in the peri od b et ween the first and second world wa r in Russia. How eve r , as [ 13] poi n ts out, in his later y ears Mar x understoo d very well that the organization of agricultural sector in Russi a’s rural ar eas was wo r th a muc h more posi tiv e appraisal than he was aw are of when wri ting his ma jor works. Moreov er, he explicitly w arned against a simplistic application of his earli er views in that setting. Unfortunately this latter view had muc h l ess impact than hi s earl ier p osition. 17 Providing systems softw are for a PC has b een an example of the remark able capital accu- mulat i on that m ay accrue fr om the i solation of a seemingly m arginal task. This observ ation does not pr esuppose that the f actorization of w orking processes must lead to the formation of a no vel class (of so-called capitalists) who are exploiting some new form of proletariat. 17 int ens ive unit around a collection of mo dest but highly comparable pro c e sses that hav e b een inso urced from a wide range of outsourcing units these activities are muc h more likely to underg o innov ation and tec hnolo gical evolution. Thus if for instance universit y time-tabling is felt as a weakness, one can imagine that some time after its has b een outsour ced to a shared service and comp etence centre by and for a num b er of institutions it can b ecome so sophisticated that it turns into a reco gnized streng th for the par ticipating (outsourcing) units (institutions for hig her educa tion) rather than remaining to be consider ed the problem it cons tituted befor e. Once that is true the v alue of the s hared service centre ex plo des and it can b e brought to the market in such a wa y that origina l owners make unexp ected profits. 18 8.2 ‘F reedom in t wo senses’ revisited 16 The proc e ss of removing ownership of means of pr o ductio n from owners thereby obtaining a pure w o rk force as a result, may inv olve ac tions that a re less tha n friendly to wards the o riginal w orkfor ce. Anyho w, the idea is that freedom in t wo sense s is a chiev ed: freedom from the ownership of the means of pro ductio n (th us ena bling a work er to focus on primary ob jectives and to participate in the strengthening of the workforce, now adays called innov ation), and freedom as a citizen. The s e cond form o f freedo m has b een achiev ed in most lib eral demo cratic so cieties , and it ceases to play a role in des cribing trans formations of lab or division. Another w ay to understand this transformation is that the farmer is transformed from someone who sells fo o d to someone who sells his or her own time and energ y , and p erhaps creativity . W e return to the time-tabling example fro m the previo us s ection. After outsourcing, the workforce of time tabling staff is free from the obligatio ns impo sed by the ov er a ll tasks, r esp o nsibilities, a nd o b jectives of an academic institution. Instea d their fo cus has b ecome muc h more limited. A t the sa me time they a re now in a much mo r e co mpetitive field a n they need to work tow ards a s us tained improv e ment o f working pr o cedures and cost effectiv enes s. After some time a sense of pride that was orig ina lly coupled with b eing a staff mem b er of a reputed academic ins titution, a nd got lost during the outsourc ing transition, may b e rega ined, o r rather replaced by an a wareness of b eing very comp eten t and effective in a ta sk which is missio n critica l for a num b er of different aca de mic institutions at the same time. 8.3 Outsourcing as a unique driv er of inno v ation A mos t amazing asp ect of o utsourcing is that ac tiv ities w hich a re considere d of lesser imp ortance than primary pro ces ses of a unit are among its most obvious candidates for outsourcing, and for that rea son (after s uccessful outsourcing) 18 Th us what Marx understoo d as a mec hanism that gives ris e to class f or mation, can b e understoo d as a necessary prer equisi te for i nno v ation. Marx understoo d the transition to capitalism through the di vision of work and ownership as a necessary transformation, a pre- condition f or better times to come. 18 exactly those pro cess e s ma y b ecome the lo cus of concentration and of subsequent innov ation after which they may emerge as drivers of further developmen t in unexp e cted ways. So one concludes that not only an expected cost adv antage may trig ger o utsourcing of some type of activity but a lso a common aw a reness of a num b er of units o f the circumstance that within their orga nization this particular type of activity fails to ac hieve the innov ative power which it migh t hav e achiev ed in a different o rganizationa l structure. 9 Concluding remark W e ha ve discussed sourcing in a general co n text, taking notice of its po ssible role in so cial structures at la rge. A pro po sal has b een made co ncerning a mo du- lar terminolog y for s o urcing states, in particular the term sourc e men t has b een coined for that purp ose. The role of architecture for sour cing issues has bee n dis- cussed and several ques tio ns ab out it hav e b een raised though left unanswered. W e cons ider this work to co nstitute a neces sary element for the development of a theory o f outso urcing. Such a developmen t may , how ever, pro ceed in v arious directions and preserv ation of degr ees of freedom for that dev elopment ha s b een an imp ortant ob jective for us as well. References [1] J.A. Berg stra and C.A. Middelburg. Threa d a lgebra for stra tegic interleav- ing. F ormal Asp e cts of Computing , 19 (4):445 – 474, (2007). [2] J.A. Berg stra and C.A. Middelburg. Machine str ucture oriented control co de lo gic. A cta Informatic a , 5 (1):170–1 92 (2009 ), ( arXiv: 0711.0 836 [cs.SE ]) . [3] J.A. Berg stra and S.F.M. v an Vlijmen. 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