Key Features when Choosing PPM Software

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software is becoming an increasingly popular tool enterprises are using to keep projects on track and help ensure on-time delivery. There are now several great products on the market that all approach certain things differently. It has become more important than ever to choose the right PPM software for your enterprise’s needs.

PPM software can be seen as the equivalent of an air traffic controller for projects. Good software will be able to track projects but also provide a high-level overview of all the projects and their feasibility. PPM is often seen as a way to map success, but before this can happen the right solution needs to be chosen.

How to Choose the Best Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Software?

Before deciding which software tool is suitable for your requirements, have a look at the following factors.

Cloud or On-Premises PPM

First adopted readily by the IT sector, PPM is now mature enough to be used in a variety of different industries successfully. With this maturity came different feature sets that would benefit one enterprise over the other. One such feature is whether the software allows for cloud or on-premises deployment.

For companies in the process of migrating, or already have migrated to a cloud-only infrastructure, having cloud-based PPM can be a priority. In this case, the question of whether the software supports private cloud deployment or is it part of a public cloud arises. Regardless of supporting private or public cloud capabilities, subscription fees, maintenance, expansion modules, and training need to be considered.

For enterprises that chose on-premises PPM, licensing costs, hardware compatibility, and implementation need to be considered along with training and the level of support offered by the software provider.

Integration of PPM Software

Along with scalability, how easily the PPM (Project Portfolio Management) software can integrate with current software packages needs to be considered. This can be vital in choosing the right PPM for some enterprises dependent on certain software packages. It would be a waste of time, money, and other resources if the PPM solution could not integrate with other packages.

Collaboration

Given that successfully implemented or delivered projects are a team effort, collaboration-themed features are becoming increasingly important when choosing a PPM solution. Being able to easily share documents and track developments is now becoming a must-have feature. To that extent, the chosen PPM should allow team leads and team members to communicate and easily work together. A question that can be asked is how easily it allows the team to analyze specific tasks, process flow, and the allocation of resources.

Scalability

Your chosen solution needs to be able to grow as the enterprise grows. If it is not capable of meeting this requirement, it will be a productivity killer rather than a helper. To make sure that this is the case, any prospective buyer of the solution needs to see what expansion modules are available to provide flexibility. This also implies the need for features to be easily turned on or off depending on the current needs of the team.

Conclusion

Dedicating time and effort to choosing the right PPM (Project Portfolio Management) software can have positive effects on the enterprise in the long run. While there is a lot to consider, taking the time to find the right package will help ensure success for years to come.

Tags: PPM Software Project Portfolio Management Software