Solution: A project management methodology helps you tackle projects efficiently and makes you aware of all the activities involved in the execution of a project.

"Having in place a baseline of standards and methodologies will remove a lot of the risk associated with IT projects," says HP's Cheney.

Douglas Clark, CEO of Métier, a provider of project portfolio management solutions, recommends establishing repeatable processes for scoping, scheduling, allocating resources and communicating with stakeholders. "Those are the things you want to get a handle on first because they would probably give you the biggest payoff," he says.

Mistake No. 4: IT gets hamstrung by too much process.

Impact: Too much process makes the project team inflexible, and their inflexibility frustrates stakeholders.

Fumi Kondo, managing director of NYC-based consultancy Intellilink Solutions, once observed an exchange between a software developer and a project manager where the developer told the project manager that he could add extra features to an application with no additional effort. The project manager told the developer not to add the extra features because users hadn't asked for them. "My response would have been, 'Go to the users and see if those features are useful,'" says Kondo. "I see nothing wrong with over-delivering if it doesn't impact the budget or the schedule."

Solution: Be flexible and communicate with project sponsors and stakeholders.

Mistake No. 5: They don't track changes to the scope of the project.

Implication: The budget for the project explodes. So does the timeline.

Solution: CA's Strazza recommends following a formal change request process: The individual requesting the change in scope (e.g. additional features or functionality) needs to explain the specific changes on a change-in-scope document, and the project manager needs to determine how that request will impact the budget and timeline. The project sponsor has to sign off on the change-in-scope request.

Mistake No. 6: They lack up-to-date data about the status of projects.

Impact: You can't manage what you can't measure, as Peter Drucker would say. Nor can you coordinate resources or react to changes in scope, says HP's Cheney.

Solution: Software.

Mistake No. 7: They ignore problems.

Impact: Problems don't solve themselves. They fester the longer you ignore them and ultimately compound the cost of the project.

Solution: "If you do something wrong, it's about how well you fix it," says GlassHouse Technologies' Scannell. "Most people batten down the hatches and look up in the month. Understanding when you're starting to fail and quickly being able to engage as many stakeholders as possible to fix it is critical."