STATEMENT OF INFORMED CONSENT
You are being asked to be a subject in a research study about how project managers manage relationships with their IT team and vendor firm in an offshore outsourced application development context. This research is being conducted by Poornima Krishnan, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Information and Decision Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. You have been asked to participate in the research because you are an IT project manager who has recently managed an offshore outsourced application development project and may be eligible to participate. Please read this form and ask any questions you may have before agreeing to complete the survey for this research.

Your participation in this research is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your current or future relations with your employer, any organizations of which you may be a member, or the University of Illinois at Chicago. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw at any time without affecting that relationship.

The objectives of the research are to examine the different activities that client project managers engage in, as part of their efforts to manage an offshored application development project. If you agree to participate in this research, we would ask you to answer questions in an online survey to explain your own perceptions of the offshored application development project that you recently managed. This survey will take approximately 12-15 minutes of your time and must be completed in one session.

Risks and discomforts associated with being interviewed are expected to be minimal. Questions are mostly related to the nature of your activities & interactions during the project with various project stakeholders (such as business sponsors, vendor managers and so forth), your perception of the relationships among the project team members and your perception of the project outcomes. Answering some of these questions could potentially generate a slight level of discomfort to respondents.

You will not directly benefit from participating in this research; however, results of the study will help us understand the challenges of offshoring application development projects and the role of client project managers in ensuring the success of such projects. The publications resulting from this study can shed light on the importance of retaining crucial IT staff such as project managers, in an age of rampant offshore outsourcing and downsizing. If you choose, you may, upon completion of this survey, request a report of our findings from this study.

The only people who will know that you are a research subject are members of the research team. We do not ask any questions that may require you to divulge confidential or proprietary information. No information about you, or provided by you during the research, will be disclosed to others without your written permission, except:

• if necessary to protect your rights or welfare (for example, if you are injured and need emergency care or when the UIC Institutional Review Board monitors the research or consent process); or

• if required by law.

When the results of the research are published or discussed in conferences, no information will be included that would reveal your identity. If photographs, videos, or audiotape recordings of you will be used for educational purposes, your identity will be protected or disguised.

Any information that is obtained in connection with this study and that can be identified with you will remain confidential and will be disclosed only with your permission or as required by law.

There is no cost to you for participating in this study. You will not be directly compensated for participating in this study.