We outsource our entire software engineering department to an external agency and our legal compliance to a fractional counsel. Do we put external service providers on our internal Accountability Chart, or is that tool strictly reserved for full-time employees?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your Accountability Chart must represent every critical function of your business, regardless of whether that function is performed by a full-time employee, a fractional executive, or an outsourced agency. If a seat is essential to your business operations, it belongs on your chart.

When you outsource a function like software engineering or legal compliance, you do not put the name of the entire agency in the seat. Instead, you put the name of the single individual within your organization who is accountable for managing that relationship and ensuring the work gets done. For example, your Head of Technology seat might be held by an internal leader who is accountable for the outsourced engineering agency's deliverables.

If you have no internal person managing them, the seat is held by the outsourced account director from the agency, or it is sitting in your Integrator's lap as an open seat. The person in that seat must still GWC™ the role. They must understand the expectations, want the accountability, and have the capacity to manage the deliverables. Keeping these seats on your chart ensures that outsourced work does not fall into a black hole of accountability, and it keeps your leadership focused on managing outcomes, not just outsourcing problems.