Importance of Having Technical Knowledge Onboard

The issue seems to come down to trust. How can you trust any third party to be acting in your best interest?

The situation comes up anywhere where you don't have domain knowledge of the project. I've seen several people get burned by shody contractors, plumbers, mechanics, ect. It strikes me like finding a competent and honest development team reduces to the same problem.

Unfortunately, in this era of outsourcing and globalization it seems significantly more difficult to find a local development shop that someone can personally recommend.

Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? -- Juvenal (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes)

This is a lovely idea, but suffers from a severe bootstrapping problem. How should the firm choose the technical person to hire? Or which consultants to use to recommend a technical person?

I have seen plenty of situations where the technical person onboard is second-rate -- or worse. I have also seen plenty of over-priced second-rate consultants.

IMHO part of the solution will be the eventual emergence of meaningful certifications of technical competence. Although problematic in a number of ways, the IEEE CSDP is probably a good first effort. Other professions are licensed, and have continuing education requirements.