For years, project management has been a hot skill. According to one survey of IT staffing intentions in 2007, 26 percent of organizations will hire project managers and 59 percent will train existing staff in related skills. The study, by Forrester Research, found project management is the second highest priority both for hiring (after security) and training (after change management).

Why are project management skills in such demand? According to IT staffing expert Samuel Bright, "as the complexity of the IT environment increases, and the business demands increase, the need for project management just increases even more."

In other words, this is no flash-in-the-pan hot streak.

Despite all the attention paid to project management, however, project success rates are far from desirable, says Forrester's Margo Visitacion. "Metrics from the Standish Group's CHAOS report show that project success is well under 50 percent, and other studies, such as those from KPMG, estimate that less than 40 percent of implemented projects, when measured one year later, showed any of their estimated business value."

Why do so many projects fail? Visitacion says the main problem isn't methodology, but rather "creating an environment that fosters success - as defined by your organization."

How can project managers create that type of environment? Here are 10 tips:

1. Create Consensus

Want to make a project successful? Foster good team dynamics, and thus collaboration. In particular, keep the team focused and continually strive for the consensus needed to keep a project progressing. "It's the project manager's unique ability to bridge differences, find common threads and move the group to a common understanding and acceptance of the project's goals, objectives, and what their individual roles really will be - or not - that is critical," explains a project manager involved in the massive re-banding of a segment of U.S. public safety radios.

2. Differentiate Between Accountability and Responsibility

Effective project managers know the difference between accountability and responsibility, says Christopher Avery, a project management consultant and author of Responsibility Redefined. Accountability, he says, is "essentially the process of making and keeping agreements about behaviors, results and consequences." Responsibility is "an internal feeling of ownership." Don’t mistake one for the other.

3. Manage the Environment

Such distinctions are useful because effective project management requires "managing the context of the environment, rather than the work," says Ryan Martens, chief technology officer of Rally Software Development in Boulder, Colo. In other words, while employees may be accountable to the project manager, the project manager must foster an environment in which team members feel responsible for the outcome of the project, as well as their teammates' success.

4. Know Project Members

Creating that kind of situation requires balancing business and project needs with team members' needs. "You must be able to see the big picture, as well as appreciate the importance of the individual tasks that people are engaged in," says the telecommunications project manager. In particular, understand the environment in which team members operate, their perceived role, and the pressures they face. "Empathy is not sympathy - it's a critical appreciation."

5. Lose the Power Trip

Project managers need all the critical tools at their disposal, since they rarely have managerial authority over team members. "If you think you have power over the team, and you behave that way, good stinking luck," says Martens. Instead, think of good project managers as being salespeople: They convince others to do what they need to get done.

6. Step Away From Microsoft Project

When managing projects, keep related documentation simple for non-project managers. "We can all lose ourselves in Microsoft Project, but just having simple Excel spreadsheets where you can sort on status and types of projects is a huge help," says Marydale Abernathy, director of Web development for Diversified Business Communications in Portland, Maine. Behind the scenes, a project manager can still use a favored tool. "But when you show a large project document to a non-project management person, their eyes start to glaze over," she says. "So the idea is to give them their little pieces, and keep them honest."
 
7. Stay Calm

No matter what happens during a project, grace under pressure is a must. "I find, as a director, that it's great having a project manager who can communicate in a level way around very heated, intense deadlines," says Abernathy. "You have that calm and cool anchor, that individual that is nicely saying, 'I see that this is running late,' and it's incredibly helpful.”

8. Talk Business and Technology

As that suggests, communication skills are key, and effective project managers can translate essential project information into both technical terminology and straight-up business talk, and not dwell on unnecessary details. Such an approach is especially effective with business managers, as well as ensuring that “executives have investment in the project without a lot of emotion or technical discussion,” says Abernathy.

9. Evangelize

Progressive IT departments are using project management to, well, make themselves look good. At Abernathy's company, the project management office - part of the IT department - now works on every IT project, demonstrating to the entire company the value of using its project management talent. "It's changing the culture within our organization," notes Abernathy. "All the departments are seeing the clarity that is being provided, because on IT projects you're still communicating out to the larger business, on all the touch points and business processes."

10. Put Project Management First

Memo to senior managers: To maximize success rates, all projects need a project manager, or at least someone who plays one. "I'm a big proponent of assigning project management duties to an individual. Even if that's not their primary job role, then that is their primary role on the project, because we see so much success around projects that have specific leaders," says Abernathy. Doing so, she believes, ensures "all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted for the due diligence before you do begin a project. (This) makes projects go so much more smoothly, and is a key to success."