Requirements Gathering in a outsourced project, who should do it?

Hi all,

I've been pondering over this for a while now and though I'd ask you guys..

If you outsourced a development or design project... who would be best to do the requirements gathering and deployment, you (outsourcer) or the outsourcee? (even if it was a freelace developer/designer or a development/design shop you outsourced to)

on one hand, the client hired you to do the job, so might expect you to interact with them... and on the other hand, the developer/design is probably the best person to get the requirements firsthand and do the deployment as how the system needs to be deployed.

[puzzled]

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SuperRobot5000!

Personally i would do it myself. I like to get a good understanding of the project before i take it on weather i'm outsourcing it or not.

jon, how do you manage the requirements gathering if your client is in another country? is it basically asking the right questions over a form of communication like skype or video conference?