A key change, Beverly says, is that the perspective of project managers has become as decentralized as the technology they manage. "You need to look beyond your immediate circle and appreciate the dynamics of a broader community of interest and practice," he says. That includes understanding the business goals and pressures that motivate both your project sponsor and your users.

"When you're dealing with a Stanford MBA who's bright and aggressive, if you're not on top of your game discussing project scope and budget changes, you're toast," says Virginia Robbins, chief operating officer at North Bay Bancorp , a community bank holding company in Napa, Calif. "Project managers today have to be absolutely confident that they understand both the technology and the business and can translate between the two," adds Robbins, a Computerworld columnist who spent years as an IT project manager.

To achieve that confidence, ask questions relentlessly until you understand precisely the terminology, the issues and the context within which the business users operate, she says.

Communicate in 3-D

Because the people you're working with and want to learn from are no longer always right down the hall -- or even on the same continent - project managers have to become great communicators. "The virtualization of IT makes it tougher to communicate," says Peter Baker, vice president of information systems and technology at Emcor Facilities Services Inc., a subsidiary of Emcor Group Inc. in Arlington, Va. As a result, he says, project managers "need to communicate up, down, to the left and right."