All Marriott projects also use identical metrics and reporting vehicles, such as scorecards. "We have that consistent management, project after project," Petty says. "I don't have to figure out which tool I'm using for this project, which methodology is prescribed. Whether the project is in the finance group, the HR group or the sales group, it's consistent across the company."

That consistency is largely thanks to Toni McDermott, vice president of enterprise architecture process and security domains, who designs the training and processes that enable consistent application development. "It's all about standard, repeatable processes," she says. "We wanted to provide better customer service, be more efficient, deliver a similar customer experience, deliver on time on budget and hit quality."

To do that, her group developed a tool kit that, through standard terminology, processes and training, has changed the project management culture. "We wanted something that would work on a small project and a large project, insourced and outsourced, custom or [commercial off-the-shelf]. So it has a lot of flexibility, but between the language and the templates and standards, it's given us a way to communicate across the organization," she says. "And having these templates really speeds things up."

The people on the front lines of project management say Marriott's three-legged-stool approach works. "I've been in this type of role for 10 years, and in the first half of that time, we didn't use this model," Cullen says. "There's a significant difference in what I experience."

While the relationship between IT and the business has always been strong, he says, "the difference is how we view the outsourcer: They're more than a vendor; they're a partner. Their success is our success. If you view them as a vendor and you try to manage margins, it's a different mentality.