Outsourcing Debunked: What's real and what's baloney in IT's longest-running controversy

In spite of its title, Outsourcing Debunked: What’s real and what’s baloney in Information Technology’s longest-running controversy isn’t an expose. It’s more damning than that: It’s an analysis of just how badly and baldly industry’s self-styled experts have oversold IT outsourcing’s benefits (and, for that matter, other forms of outsourcing), both to the individual corporations that outsource, and to society and the U.S. economy.

The book is a collection of columns from Keep the Joint Running, Bob Lewis’s popular InfoWorld column-turned-self-published blog. They date from 1996 until this year, so in addition to providing clarity on a subject that usually gets more hand-waving than careful analysis, they also provide historical context.

And entertainment. These aren’t dry policy tracts. They were written to grab and hold your attention. Each one does, and by the time you’ve finished the collection you won’t be sure whether you should smile at Lewis’s ironic writing or ask your physician for some blood-pressure medication.

There’s no reason not to do both.