As problematic as these metrics are for IT departments, Cardin doesn't suggest changing them. Instead, he recommends that project management offices (PMOs) play a more active role in managing project sponsors' and business stakeholders' perceptions of project success and failure. Here are four measures Forrester advises PMOs to take.

4 Ways PMOs Can Improve the Perception of IT Project Success

1. They can keep project steering committees on task.
Cardin notes that projects often stall when the steering committee providing governance for the project fails to make decisions or solve problems. "The PMO is better positioned than the individual project manager to keep project decisions and the necessity of these decisions visible to business and IT management," he writes.

2. They can improve communication with project sponsors about changes in requirements and the impact of those changes on the budget and timeline.
This will prevent project sponsors from viewing projects as failures when project requirements changed and resulted in higher costs.

3. They can improve the reliability of project plans.
Cardin recommends that PMOs establish best practices for developing plans for projects that involve "significant unknowns." Such established best practices help the PMO set business sponsors' expectations for reasonable project performance and reasonable actions for a project manager to take under different conditions.

4. They can better communicate estimates of cost, schedule and resources.
PMOs need to more clearly articulate to project sponsors how they come up with estimates for a project's cost, schedule and the resources it will require, how those estimates are based on certain business conditions, and how changes to those business conditions can impact the cost of and timeline for the project.