The Best PPM Software is All About Orchestrating a Portfolio of Projects By Pragya Singh, Technical Writer and Market Analyst at SelectHub
Project portfolio management (PPM) software equips organizations with tools to manage multiple concurrently running initiatives across portfolios. It provides visibility and oversight to oversee current resources and projects while managing future needs and expectations.
Companies can better allocate resources to existing and future projects using these systems by increasing project awareness and visibility. This guide will provide you with an overview of PPM systems, followed by their distinctive benefits and features.
Executive Summary
- Project and portfolio management software offers a high-level view while aligning resources, budgets and project priorities to drive strategic outcomes.
- Typical benefits of portfolio project management software include resource optimization, reduction of project delays and failures, cost savings and enhanced performance of individual projects.
- Implementation goals vary but often include aligning the portfolio with business objectives and maximizing the portfolio’s value.
- These tools offer core functionalities, including financial management, analytics and reporting, project management, resource management, work management and risk management.
- The most effective way to conduct a project portfolio management software comparison is to build a checklist of key requirements.
- Asking questions internally will provide insight into the type of solution your company needs, while entering a demo prepared with the right questions helps you properly analyze PPM companies.
Deployment Methods
You can deploy PPM software in one of the three ways: on-premise, cloud or hybrid cloud, depending upon your business requirements.
Cloud-Based
Cloud-based deployment allows you to access your preferred solution using any device with a robust internet connection. You can delegate tasks, track progress, review KPIs and more at any time and from any location.
On-Premise
This strategy installs the software directly on your company’s computers and servers. You can use this method to manage project portfolios, access data and optimize resources from a single worksite.
Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud strategy allows you to use public and private clouds to allocate and supervise information. You can access and examine information from any device at any place using the public cloud. Similar to on-premise, a private cloud helps you store sensitive data and control who has access to it.
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Primary Benefits
Managing multiple projects simultaneously is a business necessity for many organizations. PPM applications simplify the complexities of managing multiple initiatives and projects at the same time, which are often competing for the same resources.
Implementing a PPM strategy helps improve operations while keeping your portfolio organized through a single system of record that reduces conflicts and fosters collaboration. Here are some of the core benefits of PPM software.
Automate Planning
Over the years, enterprises have learned that most of the time they spend planning goes to waste. The situation, however, doesn’t always have to be the case. PPM software has advanced to provide reliable forecasts about project completion, taking into account constraints such as cost, scope and time.
Modern systems automate project planning and scheduling while laying a solid foundation for projects through critical deliverables, milestones and roles before implementation. These applications track project progress against your baseline while keeping plans up-to-date.
PPM technology also helps reduce planning overheads by eliminating guesswork from estimations while allocating the best resources available.
Enhance Project Ownership while Minimizing Risks
PPM solutions help you adopt a more balanced approach while prioritizing, choosing and maintaining project investments as a portfolio rather than individual initiatives. When comparing projects as a portfolio, you can make changes at the macro-level rather than the individual level for higher impact.
Businesses constantly look for ways to maximize project investment returns while reducing risks. You might find a high-risk project that has the possibility of high returns unappealing, but when you combine it with other low-risk projects that are essential for you to stay competitive in the market, you can take it up.
When you treat projects as corporate portfolio investments, business approvals and standards apply to the entire portfolio rather than individual initiatives.
Improve Team Communication
Implementing a PPM strategy will improve your team communication by breaking down silos between sub-portfolios and individual projects. It enhances employee task delegation by assigning work as part of a larger project that your team attempts to complete.
Team members attain cohesion by collaborating closely on assignments, schedules, dependencies, pending work and more. In-built Kanban boards and sprints ensure that teams understand priorities. Management can align with teams while eliminating rework and focusing on rapid service delivery.
The software creates channels for internal and external communication while promoting transparency and accountability. Your clients can track project progress, review edits and provide feedback while viewing the information relevant to them.
Optimize Resource Allocation
Although resource allocation is a tricky game, technological assistance makes it easier. With the help of software, you know where to channel your resources.
Successful resource management promotes high work standards by not overloading teams. Such tools are quick to identify bottlenecks and determine when to add extra people to the team.
Additional Benefits
- Manage the entire project portfolio, making risk assessments and resource trade-offs quickly.
- Stay compliant with industry standards and requirements for reporting.
- Streamline invoicing across an entire project, ensuring all project components are tracked financially in real time.
- Gain greater insights into the financial implications of project management decisions.
- Achieve tighter coordination across each phase of each project execution’s workflow.
- Standardize project attributes and activity with work breakdown structures (WBS) to increase the speed and efficiency of managing projects.
- Allow the PMO to budget their time as efficiently as possible, only handling exceptions.
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Implementation Goals
While implementing a PPM solution, you should carefully consider how it will affect your organization. Every business is different, but the goals listed below provide an overview of common reasons to implement PPM Software.
| Goal 1 Align Projects and Business Objectives | Any project you take up should have a purpose that aligns with your goals. It’s a waste of time, money and effort to start projects only to discover later that they don’t help you achieve your goals. According to the PMO Outlook report, a staggering 75% of projects don't align with organizational business strategies. PPM software handles the intake of new ideas using scoring models to determine if projects add to the company’s goals. It also includes timelines and roadmaps for defining scope and deadlines. |
| Goal 2 Achieve the Most Effective Balance | You need to balance the project mix your company undertakes to maximize success. An organization’s execution capabilities can suffer if it has ten projects competing for the same resources. The best project portfolio management software takes resource and financial constraints into account while choosing projects. The strategy helps businesses keep a well-balanced portfolio of short, medium, and long-term projects logically. |
| Goal 3 Maximize Value Across Portfolios | Much like CRM, which uses tools for identifying the most valuable leads to pursue, PPM applications have features that do the same for a company’s portfolio. Scoring tools and predictive analytics allow decision-makers to determine value based on different scenario models and associated risks. These analytics help organizations prioritize the projects that will bring the highest ROI. |
| Goal 4 Provide a Comprehensive, Holistic View of the Portfolio | Inability to accurately track resources, budgets and risks can jeopardize operations while impacting the entire portfolio adversely. Disparate, non-integrated solutions for planning, executing, and closing projects lead to delays and cost overruns. PPM software resolves these issues by breaking down silos and centralizing all critical information into a single record system. The new structure gives team managers and the PMO system end-to-end visibility. It also facilitates the delivery of essential reports to stakeholders to analyze the portfolio’s performance. |
| Goal 5 Portfolio Orchestration | An integrated solution equips you to see your projects in multiple views from a standard system for successful portfolio orchestration. Centralized data ensures accuracy and offers greater visibility into all your initiatives. Dashboards display pertinent information for you to understand project pieces correctly. Such functionality allows a 360-degree view of the same performance measures across all active initiatives. Access to consolidated financial, accounting and project data synchronizes your management speed and accuracy. |
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Key Features & Functionality
If you have read till now, it is apparent that you want to bring systemic changes to your organization. Most solutions offer a similar set of core features and functionalities. While you evaluate products, look for the following capabilities to ensure that your business gets the portfolio support it needs.
| Portfolio Management | Effective PPM applications aid in portfolio selection with a balanced mix of projects and prioritization. They have in-built tools to rank portfolios that evaluate selected ideas, plans and ongoing projects while determining your company’s capacity to launch new initiatives. Many solutions include roadmap dependencies to outline the completion order, identifying and mitigating bottlenecks. They also come with health indicators, which provide real-time status data across budgets, schedules and project scopes. A related feature is the project hierarchy. It enables team members to view progress and status at different levels within an organization so stakeholders can view high-level summaries or drill into details. |
| Financial Management | For PMO teams and project managers, it is crucial to get visibility into project-specific expenses. Monitoring direct and indirect costs becomes important as projects often shift direction due to changing customer requirements. The latest costing data, financial ratios and key performance indicators (KPIs) form the framework that project managers, PMO teams and senior management depend on to make decisions. The best solutions provide real-time integration with accounting and finance systems while scaling quickly to support new complex projects without losing any time. These applications also provide cost and financial projections quickly at the project, program or portfolio level. And they can provide alerts when critical items in the accounting and financial statements change over time. |
| Reporting and Analytics | Data reporting and analytics form fundamental capabilities of PPM suites. These tools help project managers save considerable time spent on reporting, analytics and preparing presentations by analyzing company data and comparing it to the previous reports. An efficient solution should support planning tools capable of producing the critical path and Gantt and PERT charts. Dashboards are another essential feature to consider. They centralize necessary information so managers, executives and other stakeholders can quickly gain a 360-degree view of various KPIs. PPM software often also includes tools for earned value management (EVM). EVM is an invaluable technique for managing and measuring performance and progress. It also provides daily forecasts of each project’s timelines, contribution to the critical path and milestones attained. |
| Project Management | Project portfolio management software supports foundational management capabilities like performance analysis, time and expense tracking, data integration, and resource and cost optimization. Their primary capabilities include managing tasks at the resource level, project planning and management methodologies, and advanced scheduling. PPM suites used in manufacturing support finite scheduling, which considers production and resource constraints to be optimized to attain production goals. |
| Resource Management | Companies usually struggle to balance tightly constrained resources for large-scale projects while completing tasks and critical paths. You should look for solutions that support a broad base of resource optimization beyond resource loading materials. Resource management extends beyond managing inventory to focus on raw materials, production machinery and assets, each team member’s level of training, and the optimal mix of all constraints. This functionality tackles complex projects that often occur in tandem. |
| Risk Management | Every project faces the risk of missing deadlines and execution issues. Other significant risks include cost overruns due to improper planning, penalties for non-compliance and scope creep from losing sight of the customer’s preferences, goals and needs. PPM software can show risk-based scores of each project, providing early warning of a specific critical path task that can’t adhere to a schedule. Ideally, it’s best to look for PPM solutions that incorporate foundational aspects of risk management: identifying, assessing, managing, controlling and communicating risks at the project and portfolio level. It’s also vital to identify risks and their financial implications on large-scale projects. |
| Work Management | The ability to effectively manage operations is another key component to consider. Work management gathers crucial project information related to work activities while giving managers and the PMO deeper insight into a project’s details. They also provide project overviews for monitoring the status of projects and the overall portfolio, along with an archive of project status reports. Timesheet management automates time entry, tracking, billing and reporting at multiple levels, while expense management captures expenditures and supports the expense reporting, submission and approval process. These systems offer a centralized repository for storing and managing problems, requests and ideas. This gives managers control over projects as they evolve. After classifying, discussing and reviewing, you can turn these demands into new projects, change requests or issues. |
| Change Management | Operational restrictions, technical adjustments, legal troubles or modified requirements lead to project failure. Modified project scope or details often result in missed deadlines and budget overruns. Sophisticated PPM systems respond to changes by matching resource availability with altered demands. They incorporate multiple change requests with a central repository while providing quick answers. This capability helps you track project budgets and timelines in real time. |
| Integrations | Many leading PPM solutions can connect with email clients, though integration isn’t as standard or robust. However, the opposite is true when it comes to providing open APIs. All the top systems include open APIs that integrate with third-party applications for seamless data transfer. The capability improves workflows by automating tasks, enables the development of custom applications and grants greater integration flexibility. As business systems become more sophisticated and data proliferates, integrating with third-party applications has become central in connecting the dots to ensure the right people can easily access the information they need. |
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Advanced Features & Functionality
It’s helpful to be aware of secondary features in addition to core capabilities. While not necessarily as important, these features can play a role in determining whether a portfolio software solution is right for your company.
| Security | Security is a primary consideration for any company, especially those that execute projects for external clients. Having control over who can access and edit project information can prevent a disaster while ensuring all necessary stakeholders have the ability to stay informed. Many project and portfolio management programs provide the option for administrators to set role-based privileges, so every user has the appropriate level of access based on their role. Team members won’t need the editing powers of managers, and clients may only need to view certain segments of a project. Such a level of flexibility simplifies the process of securing sensitive project information. |
| Notifications and Alerts | Notifications are crucial to track progress and details. You can configure alerts to notify your managers and team members about approaching deadlines and overdue tasks. Users can receive notifications via email or within the application via a notification tab. The capability provides complete visibility and prevents essential details from getting lost. |
| Globalization Support | For organizations that operate on a global scale, this feature enables operations to run smoothly. Multi-lingual support capabilities allow users to configure the settings across a range of common languages. And with multi-currency support, solutions are able to track costs and expenditures based on regional currency. |
| Native Mobile Apps | On-the-go access to project information has become more available thanks to mobile apps. The ability to view and update details from anywhere, at any time, is crucial for teams that operate out in the field. However, the level of capability varies depending on the specific solution. Some support native Android and iOS apps, while others rely on the workaround of visiting the URL via the mobile device’s browser. In such cases, an interface optimized for mobile viewing is essential. |
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Upcoming Trends
In the fast-evolving world of PPM technology, new trends constantly emerge that influence how companies conduct their daily businesses. The project and portfolio management market continues to evolve just as quickly as the organizations that use it. The following are some emerging trends to consider.
Scaling Agile into Portfolios
Agile continues to be an influential trend in portfolio management. Organizations have started to feel the growing need to change their practices as they adopt agile methodologies. One of the most pressing difficulties facing businesses today is to devise ways to combine Agile and traditional projects into a unified portfolio view.
Since its release in 2011, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) equipped organizations with the tools and methodologies to increase productivity, drive quality improvements, achieve faster time to market and increase employee engagement.
According to a recent McKinsey survey, successful Agile transformations enhance organizational performance in multiple ways. Businesses reported a 30% increase in customer satisfaction, operational performance, employee engagement and efficiency.
There’s a growing shift towards hybrid portfolio management, which combines traditional models like Waterfall with newer Agile practices. Organizations realize that no technology is superior, and multiple methods can coexist to serve specific business functions.
Additionally, there’s a significant rise in lean portfolio management. As the name suggests, the concept promotes minimalistic portfolio management. Here, the focus is on improving efficiency by reducing waste while delivering the best value to the end customer.
Rethinking Value Delivery
Measuring ROI has been the most crucial trend in portfolio management. However, the market has witnessed a shift from projects to products and products to services over the years. Companies today are rethinking ways to provide maximum value to their customers while considering the methods to quantify that value.
Organizations are increasingly working with their clients to restructure how they measure portfolio advantages. Many businesses are struggling to find ways to move toward an adaptive portfolio management model that focuses on value delivery while optimizing traditional and agile techniques to provide that value.
Improving Resource Demand Management
Demand management is the structure for managing all new projects, initiatives, goods and services within an organization. However, demand and capacity management are often misconstrued. Organizations are continuously devising ways to balance their resources with their actual capacities.
In a continuously evolving market, it is critical for businesses to connect their expenditures and investments in the future with their long-term objectives. You won’t accurately understand who is working on what if you don’t have enough resource demand management systems in place.
Strengthening Data Visualization
Over the years, company analytics and collaborative technologies have improved significantly. Business analytics and collaboration solutions have made it easier for project managers to create dashboards while providing visibility into task progress and modifications.
Project managers are no longer required to be software developers. Many companies are leveraging digital dashboards to understand client project portfolios, identifying data sources while automating data collection into the dashboard. Automated dashboards significantly reduce manual reporting overheads while speeding up decision-making.
Practitioners are increasingly using portfolio management technologies to get better acquainted with the broader picture.
Integrating Artificial Intelligence
It is impossible not to mention AI and its impact on the broader corporate environment. AI has been at the heart of all technological innovations in the last decade, and its growing application in portfolio management is no exception.
The combination of hardware advancements, the rise of big data and machine learning based on neural networks provide actionable insights and automated processes that were previously a pipe dream.
These insights hold promise for the PPM industry, where massive volumes of structured data form the base for most initiatives. Until recently, data scientists had to manually “connect the dots” between all sorts of complex variables and dependencies to make sense of it all. The manual method was inconvenient and time-consuming.
Today’s PPM solutions offer AI-powered predictive analysis to help customers spot outliers, locate data quality issues within datasets and promptly spot any other data-related problems.
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
Software Comparison
Choosing the right PPM solution among hundreds of vendors and products might appear daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. You can start by outlining the objectives that encapsulate your company’s primary strengths while laying down a solid framework for your business requirements.
To simplify your software search and align it with your corporate strategy, you can also use our detailed PPM software report that offers an insightful comparison of the best PPM products available.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
While evaluating PPM software, it is pertinent to keep your organization’s budget in mind. The price you end up paying will depend on many factors, including the number of user licenses required, the deployment strategy you choose and the modules and add-ons you purchase.
Additionally, you can also consider software support packages if required. You can carefully evaluate the cost of a PPM system before shopping for it, either from the vendor’s website or by requesting prices directly. You can also access our free PPM price guide to determine which top vendors align with your budget range.
Price Guide for PPM Software See prices for the top PPM Software... Plus get important questions to ask.
Get Prices Now
Questions to Ask Yourself
Choosing a PPM system that works best for your company is an important business decision. We’re here to help you navigate the options and hone in on the best solution for your business. The following are some valuable questions to build a framework for your search:
What am I doing wrong with project management today?
- How many projects are behind schedule due to a lack of project visibility?
- What percentage of your projects achieve timely completion?
- What manual workarounds are you relying on that the software will have to automate?
- Is it possible to see how project progress is impacting overall company profitability?
What kind of project portfolio management software will I need?
- Which project management, optimizing and scheduling workflows your current system doesn’t address?
- How much time does your company spend on generating project management reports?
- What workflows and production processes most differentiate your company, make it unique and place an added load on your PPM application?
Questions About the Software
Asking questions about the product itself can help chart out a strategy in advance. We recommend asking at least the following questions:
How will it help my PMO team optimize multiple projects that rely on the same resources?
Asking this question will help you understand the level of integration of your product's portfolio structure. It also reveals how well the system integrates optimization logic.
How will it rebalance portfolios in cases of budget modification?
Changes in budgets and financial projections often lead to project reorganization. You can assess a system's capability by gauging how quickly it can redo the parts of the project that need modification without impacting the entire structure.
Does it track costs by project, including EVM analysis and reporting?
Your chosen system should track costs and EVM across a portfolio for you to visualize which projects are on schedule, at risk or lagging. The solution should also analyze the completion percentage of each project in the portfolio and show how resource trade-offs impact overall EVM over time.
How will it improve my business?
Your chosen system must make you more competitive globally while improving your project delivery and efficiency. Its EVM modules should help your company effectively manage each project relative to budget, constraint and broader timeline goals.
Questions to Ask Vendors
Asking vendors meaningful questions helps resolve your software implementation queries. Use the following questions as a starting point for honest conversations with vendors:
What level of customizations will my business need for applications, screens and platforms?
Typically, on-premise solutions have more customization options since you fully control the environment and code. However, you may find cloud solutions that meet your requirements and don't require IT expertise to configure.
Will the product be able to manage data reports a year from now?
One of the significant advantages of project and portfolio management software is its reporting capabilities. Instead of manually sifting through Excel spreadsheets to compile reports, you can generate them with much greater ease.
Will it integrate with my current modules, and what other integrations does it offer?
Creating a seamless flow of data is critical. It eliminates silos and ensures each system has the information you need to make informed decisions.
What level of support and training will you offer during and after installation?
The types of support and training PPM companies provide will vary. Knowing this upfront can help narrow your list. The support you receive from a vendor needs to align with your determined requirements.
Portfolio Management Software Report Expert recommendations and analysis of the top software
Get free access now
In Conclusion
Choosing from the host of PPM products is a task you can't afford to take lightly. The solution you end up with can be the difference between subpar and exceptional business performance.
You can use this project portfolio management software guide as a starting point for making this decision.
