Advice needed on moving beyond the "elf" r

es330td writes: "I've been doing network application design of some sort since 1995; my first full web application was a SQL Server 6.0 database running on Windows NT 3.5 with Cold Fusion 1.0 middleware served by O'Reilly's WebSite Pro. Since then I've done multiserver solutions using mixtures of Windows, Linux and AIX with code written in .Net, ASP, C, Perl & PHP. Although I can do all these things and many others, I am tired of writing code. The true enjoyment in my job is in the design of the solution. I like sitting down with clients, even the client is just a manager in another department, and analyzing their needs and processes and devising a solution. Once the problems are solved I can do the code but I'd rather just hand it off to some elf to do and move on to the next solution to design. I'd really like to find some kind of role that is more interaction with the consumer of the app and less of the implementation coding.

I am not expecting to make a move tomorrow, if it means taking a time to get a Master's degree or some kind of additional formal training I'm prepared for that, I just need to know what it is I need to be looking for in my quest.

I'm sure there are at least a few people who have taken it to the next level; is there any advice y'all can offer?"