Politics within your organization count, too. And today, being politically savvy is even more crucial as companies' tolerance for IT failures diminishes. "Project managers are easy scapegoats for problems within the organization," Hagerup says. "You need to understand people and their motivations, figure out who to ally with and who to watch out for." Even keeping the project sponsor actively involved once the project is kicked off can be a game of relationship management. "It's a key relationship to develop, but it's easier said than done," he points out.

Political savvy requires good relationship skills, but it also means taking an honest look at how your company operates and using the system to your advantage, says Johanna Rothman, a project manager who is president of Rothman Consulting Group Inc. in Arlington, Mass.

For instance, if your business needs require you to complete a project in five months, but you know from experience that it can take two months just to get the OK to begin, you need to find ways to work around the edges to get a head start. You might begin by prototyping, for example. "It's a politically correct way of getting management in gear without saying, 'We take too long to start projects,'" Rothman says.

Assert yourself

With heightened pressure to succeed, you need to be more outspoken about what you need to get the job done. For example, if you work on global projects, you can't expect your travel budget to magically increase so you can meet your project counterparts face to face. But you have to make it happen. Even if your company has placed a moratorium on travel, you can't take no for an answer, Hagerup says.