"There are all kinds of organizational models," says Richard Scannell, co-founder of IT infrastructure consultancy GlassHouse Technologies. "I've never seen anything that works well. There's no easy answer [to the resource allocation question]."

You just have to try synchronizing people and projects as best you can, says Koppelman, adding that one potential solution is to appoint a resource manager who's responsible for figuring out who will be assigned to each project and for ensuring there's a fair allocation of talent across projects.

Scannell suggests setting up "tiger teams" where people get taken out of their traditional job responsibility for a year or more to work on a specific project. Ken Cheney, director of HP Software's PPM Center, recommends assigning resources at a project level as opposed to a specific task level, which he says is much more arduous.

If you're still hard-pressed to adequately staff projects, you may be able to free up resources by cancelling a "discretionary" project (e.g. one that isn't tightly tied to the business strategy), says Cheney. He suggests looking at your entire portfolio of projects your IT staff is working on to identify ones that aren't mission-critical. "By stopping those projects and reallocating resources to projects that will have the biggest impact, the organization as a whole can be much more successful," he says.

Mistake No. 2: Projects lack experienced project managers.

Impact: Projects can quickly grow out of control without a savvy project manager at the helm.

Solution: Hire project managers with certifications and the finesse required to manage stakeholders. Matthew Strazza, vice president of services (North America) for CA, says good project managers have to have strong soft skills. They need to know how to facilitate meetings, manage risk and handle a variety of different stakeholders — the business people who are looking for functionality, the IT people who care about security, and the financial people who are worried about the budget.

"If you're not addressing the financials, managing the budget on a week-to-week basis and notifying the client of any change, you can get into trouble pretty quickly," says Strazza.

Good project managers also need to possess technical expertise in whatever technology is being deployed, he adds.

Process Mistakes

Mistake No. 3: IT doesn't follow a standard, repeatable project management process.

Impact: This is the second of the most common project management mistakes. Lack of methodology increases the risk that tasks related to the project will fall through the cracks, that projects will have to be re-worked, and ultimately that a project won't be completed on time or on budget.