Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Software Guide

Published: October 18, 2021, Last Updated: March 26, 2024

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What is PPM software?

Decision-making in a dynamic business climate demands a central platform to manage overall project efforts. Project portfolio management (PPM) software provides the visibility, oversight, and tools to help companies prioritize and manage current projects and resources, as well as future needs and demands.

Project management software can help streamline your company’s processes. When you’re managing multiple projects at a time, it can be difficult to identify bottlenecks and streamline tasks. Project mismanagement can result to lack of visibility into project status, inefficient decision-making and budget overruns. Fortunately, project portfolio management software can help project managers overcome these challenges and streamline their work. With the assistance of PPM software, project managers can easily align projects with organizational objectives, identify and mitigate risks, and gain complete visibility across multiple projects.

And to help you decide on the best project portfolio management software for your business, here’s a list of our hand-picked favorites and what sets them apart from other PPM software:

Smartsheet is best for collaboration and workflow automation.
Wrike is best for ready-made templates.
monday.com is best for its user-friendly and intuitive interface.
Planview is best for reporting.
Adobe Workfront is best for a cloud-based ecosystem.
Asana is best for task management.

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Smartsheet: Best for collaboration and workflow automation

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Pros

Easy-to-use layout makes it simple to organize and track projects.
Helps teams collaborate in real time.
Gives a clear picture of the project’s progress, schedule, and requirements.

Cons

Limited suitability for complex and large-scale projects.
Requires a learning curve for users new to the platform.

Customizable Dashboards and Reports: Smartsheet lets you make dashboards and reports that you can customize to show you how your project portfolio is doing in real-time. You can keep track of critical metrics, keep an eye on progress, and make insightful reports to help you make choices based on data.

Integration: Smartsheet works with many different tools and platforms, so you can connect and combine information from other places. Integration with tools like Microsoft Project, JIRA, Salesforce, and Tableau makes handling data easier for different teams.

Centralized Project Information: Smartsheet gives you a central place to store and handle all information about a project, such as plans, tasks, documents, and communications. This ensures that everyone has access to the most up-to-date information, promoting openness and cooperation.

Smartsheet offers free subscription for one user, up to two editors.

Pro plan starts at $7 per user per month, billed annually.

Business plan starts at $25 per user per month, billed annually.

Enterprise Edition requires custom pricing.

Smartsheet is one of the best project portfolio management tools because it offers flexible project tracking tools, provides portfolio-level visibility, supports automation and workflow, and integrates with other tools. These features allow teams to collaborate effectively, monitor project progress, and make informed decisions for more efficient project portfolio management.

If you don’t see the right choice amongst this list of PPM tools, look at our Marketing Project Management Software Guide for more project management software options.

Smartsheet was developed in 2005 and has since grown to become a leading provider of collaborative work management solutions, including project portfolio management, across various industries.

With its outstanding features that involve project prioritization, portfolio reporting and workflow automation, project managers can enhance efficiency, facilitate collaboration, and enable informed decision-making for successful project portfolio management.

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Wrike: Best for ready-made templates

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Pros

Ready-made templates.
Reliable customer support.
Scalability that can accommodate different team sizes.

Cons

Limited advanced reporting capabilities compared to specialized tools.
The pricing structure may be less cost-effective for smaller teams.
Limited native document editing features.

Breaking Down Silos: Wrike enables teams to eliminate silos and drive digital transformation, fostering collaboration and removing barriers between departments and teams.

Real-time Optimization: Wrike’s advanced portfolio management tools enable real-time project evaluation and optimization. It facilitates portfolio management and promotes collaboration on a single, secure platform.

Ready-made Templates: Wrike provides ready-made portfolio management templates and tools, allowing you to reduce administrative work, accelerate results, and simplify complex projects.

Wrike offers free subscription.

Team plan starts at $9.80 per user per month, billed annually.

Business plan starts at $24.80 per user per month, billed annually.

Enterprise and Pinnacle Subscriptions require custom pricing.

We chose Wrike due to its extensive functionality, user-friendly interface, real-time collaboration, and scalability. Wrike facilitates effective portfolio planning, resource allocation, and customized workflows with PPM-specific tools. Wrike can be integrated with other systems, and its scalability accommodates teams of various sizes. In addition, Wrike provides robust customer support and resources to facilitate a seamless user experience. These characteristics make Wrike the ideal platform for project portfolio managers searching for efficient and streamlined PPM processes.

Also read: Top Engineering Project Management Software for 2023

Wrike is a project management and collaboration software that Wrike Inc. created in 2006. It’s a powerful tool for team communication, file sharing, task discussions, enhancing productivity and teamwork.

Wrike also supports different functions such as Agile project management, remote working, automation, eliminating inter-team silos, and providing tailored solutions for diverse organizational needs. Wrike’s flexibility and extensive features make it suitable for empowering teams and organizations to optimize their project management and collaboration processes.

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monday.com: Best for user-friendly and intuitive interface

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Pros

User-friendly structure that makes project management and communication easier.
Real-time updates, file sharing, and task delegation.
Processes are streamlined through automation features.

Cons

Complexity in customizing workflows
Learning curve for new users

Intuitive Interface: monday.com has an intuitive interface that is straightforward to navigate and comprehend. The intuitive nature of the platform reduces the learning curve, allowing teams to adapt rapidly and maximize their productivity.

Versatile and Customizable: monday.com provides a highly adaptable and adjustable platform. Users can customize their PPM workflows, project boards, and dashboards to meet their particular requirements and preferences. This flexibility enables the efficient administration of diverse portfolios and the alignment of the software with specific organizational processes.

Analytics: monday.com offers comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities for gaining insight into project and portfolio performance. Users can monitor key performance indicators, generate custom reports, and visualize data using charts and graphs. These analytics facilitate decision-making, optimize resource allocation, and enhance project results.

monday.com is free for up to 2 seats for individuals looking to keep track of their work.

Basic plan starts at $9 per seat per month, billed annually.

Standard plan starts at $12 per seat per month, billed annually.

Pro plan starts at $19 per seat per month, billed annually.

Enterprise Edition requires custom pricing.

We chose monday.com due to its customizable nature, user-friendly interface, and seamless collaboration features. The platform allows managers to tailor their PPM workflows, track projects visually, and allocate resources efficiently. With its intuitive interface, monday.com simplifies project management and fosters effective communication and coordination among team members and stakeholders. Additionally, monday.com can accommodate portfolios of different sizes, making it suitable for both small teams and large enterprises.

monday.com, formerly dapulse, was developed in 2012 and has become widely used as a project management and collaboration tool. monday.com is a competitive project portfolio management (PPM) software offering versatile customization, an intuitive interface, robust analytics, and a rich template library.

With monday.com, users can tailor workflows, track projects visually, and allocate resources efficiently. The platform promotes effective communication and coordination among team members and stakeholders. Integration with various tools enhances productivity while automation streamlines processes. Analytics and reporting provide valuable insights for decision-making. monday.com accommodates teams of all sizes and offers pre-built templates for quick implementation. These features make it a compelling choice for PPM needs.

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Planview: Best for Reporting

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Pros

Has a track record of empowering over 4,500 clients and 2.6 million users globally.
Recognized by industry analysts for its contributions to portfolio and work management innovation.
Provides comprehensive visibility into capacity utilization, allowing project managers to reduce operational costs, identify waste and constraints, and effectively redeploy resources.

Cons

Smaller organizations or those experiencing rapid growth may need help scaling the solution effectively.
Seamless integration with other tools and data sources may require additional effort and resources.
Its pricing may be a significant investment for smaller organizations or those with limited budgets.

Reporting: Planview offers comprehensive visibility into diverse aspects of work, resources, and progress. It enables organizations to generate comprehensive reports and obtain actionable insights, facilitating informed decision-making and effective communication between teams and stakeholders.

Alignment of Strategy and Execution: Planview helps organizations match their long-term goals with the work they do every day. It turns strategy into plans that can be carried out and makes sure that teams are working on the most important projects and goals. This alignment makes it easier to stay on track, make decisions, and reach strategic goals.

Support and Guidance: Planview provides dependable support and guidance throughout the entire implementation process. The company’s tried-and-true success methodology and playbooks assist organizations in navigating their transformation journeys and maximizing Planview’s value.

Contact Planview to find the best fit for your unique requirements.

We chose Planview because it has extensive reporting and project management capabilities. Planview facilitates strategic alignment, dynamic planning, and cross-team collaboration. It offers vital guidance throughout the lifecycle of a project with its proven success methodology, leadership resources, and support. By utilizing Planview, project managers can improve their ability to deliver successful projects, drive organizational transformation, and effectively manage portfolios, making it an attractive option for project management requirements.

Also read: Best Free Project Management Software (2023)

Planview is a software corporation specializing in work and resource management solutions. They are well-known for offering a comprehensive platform that enables organizations to effectively manage their portfolios, projects, resources, and collaborative work. The solutions provided by Planview assist businesses in optimizing resource allocation, aligning projects with strategic objectives, fostering collaboration, and enhancing overall project and portfolio performance.

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Adobe Workfront: Best for cloud-based ecosystem

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Pros

The platform provides teams with a unified work management application for sharing ideas, creating content, managing complex processes, and executing work.
It can be configured to support any team, region, project, or program.
Project-related information, documents, and communications are stored on a centralized platform.

Cons

Some users commented that the platform provides limited report customization options.
As a cloud-based solution, Workfront relies on a stable internet connection for access and usage.
Workfront’s performance and responsiveness can be influenced by factors such as the number of users, the complexity of projects, and the volume of data stored.

Reviews and approvals: Adobe Workfront streamlines the approval process with online proofing tools and approval automation that let all stakeholders work in the same document where creative teams work.

Scenario planner: The Scenario Planner enables managers to anticipate how incoming projects will impact the team so they can always prioritize the highest-value work. This feature simplifies the process of continuous planning. Users can construct multiple what-if scenarios, compare them, and choose the best path forward at any time without disrupting work in progress.

Resource management: Teams can balance workloads, reduce costs, and meet targets with the software’s visual resource management tools that show projects, goals, and team capacity. Adobe Workfront’s automation also supports balancing requests against organizational priorities by identifying the best team members for critical projects.

Workfront offers four plans to meet your work management needs.

Get pricing here.

We chose Workfront because its cloud-based nature provides accessibility from anywhere, scalability to accommodate growth, strong data security measures, and real-time updates, cost-effectiveness with a pay-as-you-go model, and integration with other systems. These benefits make it an attractive option for organizations seeking to manage and optimize their project portfolios while leveraging the benefits of cloud technology.

Adobe Workfront, formerly known as Workfront, is designed for enterprises seeking to rapidly prioritize, assign, and complete projects at any scale strategically. The central dashboard of Adobe Workfront enables teams to initiate projects by displaying available resources and delegating tasks using templates and automation.

The software provides users with real-time updates on the status of projects and the impact of new work requests on resourcing timelines and KPIs. It keeps everyone aligned with the business objectives of the organization.

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Asana: Best for task management

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Pros

It safeguards business data with features such as enterprise key management, encryption in transit and at rest, and cross-regional backups.
When schedule conflicts arise, Asana automatically updates task dependencies.
Asana reduces silos between teams and tools by establishing repeatable processes and maintaining cross-team alignment.

Cons

The interface and features of Asana may be too much for organizations with many projects and complicated project structures.
Some users find the platform’s features too many and need help understanding.
If tracking money, making budgets, or analyzing costs are essential parts of your portfolio management process, you may find Asana’s capabilities in this area could be improved.

Task management: Asana’s task management keeps track of tasks, lets users assign subtasks to teammates, and sets limits to ensure projects get done on time. It also makes it easier to share files, comments, and thoughts.

Workflow Builder: The Workflow Builder lets users organize work across teams by automating processes and keeping the project moving. Organizations can make more efficient processes by using this visual tool to unite team members, coordinate their work, and streamline projects all in one place.

Communication: The software comes with several tools that make it easier for team members to talk to each other, clients, and other important people. Users can comment immediately on a task to get more information about it or to mention other team members.

Basic: Free

The free plan allows up to 15 users, which means it could work for your small team. It offers all the essential project and task management tools.

Premium: $10.99 per user per month, billed annually.

Business: $24.99 per user per month, billed annually.

We chose Asana for its task management features, intuitive interface, customization options, integration capabilities, and mobile accessibility. Its user-friendly design allows users to create, assign, and track tasks, while customizable workflows and task dependencies help manage complex projects. Seamless integration with other tools enhances productivity, and real-time updates and mobile apps keep teams connected and productive. Asana’s comprehensive task management features make it a top choice for individuals and teams seeking efficient and collaborative task management solutions.

Also read: Visual Project Management Software Guide

Asana is a web-based project management software that enables teams to manage projects, prioritize what’s most essential, and organize their work in one central location for seamless collaboration. It enables organizations to manage company objectives, digital transformations, product launches, and marketing campaigns.

Asana offers web and mobile applications enabling teams to remain on track, organize projects, and meet deadlines regardless of location. Managers can synchronize team assignments so everyone knows their responsibilities, and coworkers can share feedback, files, and status updates. It provides a comprehensive view of work and enables teams to focus on the appropriate duties at the right time. Team members can view the project’s progression, monitor individual tasks, organize sprints, and successfully launch products.

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What are some PPM software features?

Ultimately, the best software for your business depends on the overall functionality and integrations you need. To understand how a PPM tool might satisfy your objectives, it’s important to understand the core functionality each one provides. PPM software typically includes the following key management capabilities.

Pipeline management

Sometimes called pipeline assessment and analysis, this feature helps managers determine whether a project or a set of projects can be finished with the time and resources on hand. A constant, real-time overview of projects and resources allows you to assess which endeavors contribute to business objectives and determine the best way to invest accordingly.

Resource distribution

With a 10,000 foot view of your project pipeline, you can efficiently allocate company resources to projects as needed. Sometimes called demand or resource management, this allows you to manage and distribute financial, inventory, technical, and human resource. In addition to offering resource allocation on an individual project basis, many systems allow you to model what-if scenarios and apply them across the entire portfolio.

Change management

One major reason many projects fail is because new requirements, features, operational constraints, regulatory demands, or technical alterations crop up mid-project. These fluctuations in project details often force projects to go over budget or past deadlines. To overcome this, a good PPM tool provides a central repository for various change requests. This allows you to quickly assess inquiries as they arise, and match available resources to overall demand. Additionally, change management allows you to monitor project timelines and budgets in real-time.

Financial administration

Your financial manager needs to accurately estimate and manage the financial resources and anticipated outcome from company projects. Most PPM systems can demonstrate the anticipated financial value of projects in relation to strategic objectives and organizational priorities.

Financial management capabilities let you see updated financial progress as it happens, which allows you to more accurately predict if a project will fail to meet financial objectives before it’s over. When you can determine when projects will fall short of financial expectations, you can change the parameters or cease investment before incurring losses.

Risk management

PPM software allows you to analyze how risky each existing and potential project is so that you can determine confidence levels across the portfolio. By grouping projects together, you can evaluate confidence levels on a categorical basis and assist financial and resource allocation decisions. Sometimes referred to as “portfolio change and risk management,” the benefit of this feature is the ability to determine which projects—or even which facets of individual projects—are too risky. Using risk regulation modules prior to launching a project can help your organization avoid poor investments.

At the core of a PPM system, the above features are made possible by company-wide analysis capabilities. A self-service reporting dashboard provides a top-level view of projects, resources, budgets, requirements, and timelines. Analysis, predictive functionality, and what-if scenarios provide cohesive insights across investments to help leadership determine which efforts have the best prospects for high returns, assess the impact of changes to the portfolio, and reveal potential interdependencies. Project performance metrics from real-time data aggregation increase transparency.

Other considerations

In addition to analytics, other important PPM aspects to consider are:

Deployment options
Mobile access
Global support
Software integrations
IT project-specific functionality
New features release schedule
Capability-based best practices
Additional PM or ERP modules

Common PPM applications

Though it’s primarily adopted by enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) also use project portfolio management software. SMBs should focus on adopting a standard PM process and centralizing all project data before looking to leverage PPM software.

Most software markets are divided into tiers based on company size, but when choosing a PPM tool, functionality mostly varies with use case. Depending on your industry and goals, your priorities will vary. Below are a few common PPM applications that may require an industry-specific vendor.

IT/software development
Construction
Product development
Marketing agencies
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Education
Government
Insurance
Pharmaceutical
Transportation

Choosing the best project portfolio management software

While we recommend all the project portfolio management software above, the best PPM software for your organization still depends on your unique situation.

If you need to focus on team collaboration and a centralized project, information, get Smartsheet so stakeholders can have real-time access to updated information.
If you require ready-made templates, Wrike and its ready-made portfolio management templates can help you simplify complex projects.
If you’re looking for customizable software with a user-friendly interface, monday.com can help you visually track projects and allocate resources.
If you prefer PPM software with a proven track record, consider Planview, as industry analysts have recognized its proven success methodology.
If you and your stakeholders are working on a cloud-based ecosystem, Adobe Workfront’s cloud-based nature can provide access from anywhere.
If you want to manage tasks easily, Asana’s task management capabilities will help you keep track of tasks and share feedback and status updates.

If you don’t see the right PPM software in this list of project portfolio management tools, check out for more options in our Project Management Software Guide and Enterprise Project Management Software Guide.

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