Project performance remains unreliable in the information technology (IT) industry with many compromised and/or abandoned projects reported in recent studies. Consequently, researchers postulated one of the four main determinant factors of project commitment, namely the project determinant, has the most influence on IT project performance. We explore project determinant factors that underpin poor project performance and investigate the impact that technical (job) competencies and interpersonal (people) skills have on the likelihood of optimal project professionals working in the Malaysian IT industry. Our main findings are that project professionals value technical competencies, but appreciate these especially when supplemented with good interpersonal skills. Technical competencies are all moderately good indicators of project performance. Interpersonal skills, however, are the best indicators as its importance assumes an essential, albeit meager, likelihood of avoiding problematic situations. Specifically, we found that the combination of both technical competencies and interpersonal skills are thought to have the biggest impact on IT project performance and thus for making the project a success.