The Best Project Portfolio Management Software
Forbes Advisor Ratings
Methodology
Forbes Advisor uses a quantitative analysis to give each company a rating based on a five-star system. There are five key areas used with 18 different data points evaluated to rate each company. A total of ten popular solutions were evaluated to create this best of five list.
The sections evaluated are:
- Pricing. We wanted to know if the price of the product fell in line with other industry solutions as well as checking to see if a free version is available.
- General features. We checked to see if basic features were part of the core package that included role assignment, timelines, Gantt charts and software integrations.
- Additional features. Companies were evaluated as to whether or not they had additional features such as budgeting, markup tools and billing and invoicing features.
- Reviews and recognition. Companies were rated based on two review sites, Capterra and Trustpilot. We sought to find out if the company had at least a 3.5-star rating.
- Expert score. This section looked at how easy the software was to use and whether it was a good value for the money.
What is Project Portfolio Management?
PPM is a system of operations that helps leadership focus company resources on the most important projects. The most important projects are those that will support the overall objectives of the company and lead to a higher return on investment.
In PPM, leaders track and evaluate multiple projects at the same time and evaluate them based on priority. Projects that will have the biggest impact are given the highest priority. Each project is individually managed for resources, timelines and required assets.
What You Need To Know About Choosing Project Portfolio Management Software
There are four basic areas you should consider when choosing a portfolio management software solution. The first is cost, as every company needs to find something that fits into its overall budget. When considering cost, look at the monthly costs as well as any third-party costs, such as integrations with other software, which may be necessary to have an efficient system.
With that said, you also want to make sure you’re investing in a system that can keep up with your daily workflows. Efficiency is the second thing to consider when choosing a PPM. Choose a system that helps keep your people efficient in task management. The ability to create tasks and track them through a project timeline helps you make sense of complicated projects with a lot of moving parts. Having the right management features is crucial in a service of this kind.
Flexibility is another thing to consider. Things change quickly in many company operations. Your project portfolio management software should give you plenty of options for customizing workflows, tasks, and other options. This way, you have a solution that morphs into what your company needs to organize projects rather than something you need to change systems to fit into.
Software integrations can fill a lot of gaps in your system when it comes to flexibility. Many leading providers offer the ability to connect data with other types of business apps, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems to cloud storage systems and beyond. These integrations can automate a lot of tedious work on your end by automatically connecting information from these other platforms and bring that data into your project management solution.
For example, you could bring in customer information from a CRM like Salesforce into your project portfolio management solution and attach that customer to a task for an agent using Wrike. When they close a sale with that client, they could use that integration to update customer info in their platform and have it automatically update within the Salesforce app while saving them the trouble of having to log into that platform. These small conveniences can add up to save a lot of time and effort for you and your staff.
Finally, find a PPM that makes the whole process visible with transparency to all stakeholders.
Parties should be able to see the whole slate of projects, where each is at and review which take priority on the list. With that said, having a robust set of permissions options can help you maintain project security. While some workers on your team may need full edit access of task items, there could be scenarios where you’re dealing with sensitive information and want to block out unrelated parties from the project. You should also be able to toggle view-edit access for users depending on their involvement in the project.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the three phases of project portfolio management?
Each project follows three basic phases. There is the planning phase, followed by the authorization phase that green-lights the project to start. From there, the final phase is to monitor and control the project based on milestones and feedback.
What are portfolio management techniques?
Techniques used in portfolio management include systems and processes used to examine any set of projects or activities. The goal is to find a balance between the risks and returns and use resources effectively. Techniques may evaluate the stability vs. growth that a project offers and review both the attractions and drawbacks of any given project.
What are project portfolio tools?
Project portfolio tools help managers interpret and analyze project performance and often include market demand analytics, resource allocation and management tools and product pipeline processes and workflows. Tools allow the leader to schedule projects based on quantitative and qualitative data.
What are some important tools or features that project portfolio management software should have?
The features and tools you want to have when choosing project portfolio management software include the ability to assign tasks to team members, create and adjust schedules for those tasks, which should be shareable with team members, and share files with team members. This software should be accessible online, preferably with a mobile app as an option and have the ability to grow as your company grows.
