Management Software
10 criteria for evaluating PMO software and portfolio management
10 practical criteria for evaluating PMO software and project portfolio management: governance, visibility and strategic alignment.
PMO software is the platform that brings demands, projects, deadlines, costs, risks and results into a single portfolio view, so the project office can govern execution and leadership can decide where to invest. Evaluating that platform against clear criteria avoids two common choices: the spreadsheet that cannot keep up with a growing portfolio and the task tool that sees the project but not the whole.
In mid-sized and large companies, the decision usually brings together three profiles with different questions. The PMO wants governance, the strategy team wants alignment and senior leadership wants visibility to prioritize investments. The 10 criteria in this guide answer all three, and the scoring table further down helps compare vendors with the same method.
If you are still structuring your project office, start with the article on what a PMO is and which types of office exist. For the concepts of project selection and balancing, the guide to project portfolio management complements this text.
What is PMO software?
PMO software is a management platform that centralizes a company’s project portfolio and gives the project office (PMO, for Project Management Office) the resources to prioritize initiatives, track deadlines, costs and risks, and report results to leadership. The market also calls this category PPM (Project Portfolio Management) software or project portfolio management software.
The difference from a task management tool lies in the question each one answers. Task boards organize a team’s work. PMO software organizes the whole: which projects exist, which strategic objective each one serves, what it costs, which ones are at risk and where the company should invest or pause.
| Task management tool | PMO software | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | What does the team need to deliver this week? | Which projects should the company prioritize, keep or pause? |
| Level of view | Project or team | Portfolio, programs and projects |
| Who uses it day to day | Project managers and project teams | PMO, sponsors, committees and executive board |
| Main outcome | Tasks completed on time | Investment decisions backed by data |
The ISO 21504:2022 standard offers guidance on the principles of project and program portfolio management and applies to public or private organizations of any size and sector. It serves as a reference for anyone structuring a portfolio before choosing a tool.
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What are the main software options for PMO and project portfolio management?
The main software options for PMO and project portfolio management fall into four categories: spreadsheets, task and board tools, tools for agile teams and portfolio platforms. The choice depends on the number of projects in progress, the level of governance the PMO needs to exercise and who uses the data to decide.
The table presents five options, one for each usage profile, with what to validate in each. Stratws is Siteware’s platform.
| Option | Category | Best suited for | What to validate in the evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sheets | Spreadsheet | Small teams and portfolios with few projects, or custom solutions, with collaborative editing and low cost | Portfolio consolidation, decision history, approvals and deviation alerts depend on formulas and manual routine |
| Trello | Task and board tool | Smaller teams and simple projects organized in boards, cards and columns | How to build the consolidated portfolio view, which requires adaptations |
| Asana | Task and board tool | Companies that already use the tool for tasks and projects and want a consolidated view, with performance indicator dashboards | How prioritization by value, risk and capacity and the link to strategic objectives are configured |
| Jira | Tool for agile teams | Technology teams that work with sprints, bugs and customizable workflows | Whether the portfolio view also covers non-technology projects, as well as costs and budget |
| Stratws | Portfolio platform | PMOs and leadership of mid-sized and large companies that need to link each project to a strategic objective and decide with data | How the platform coexists with Jira and Azure DevOps in the project team's routine |
Task tools organize the team’s work. A portfolio needs a layer of governance on top, with prioritization, approval and a view of cost and risk. To widen the search to management platforms in general, the article on business management software gathers other options. The 10 criteria below show how to measure whether each one meets your PMO’s needs.
The 10 criteria for evaluating PMO software
The 10 criteria follow the order of a typical evaluation: first the link to strategy, then day-to-day governance and, finally, implementation feasibility. Each one includes a suggestion of what to ask for or verify in the vendor’s demo.
1. Alignment with company strategy
PMO software must link every initiative and project to a strategic objective. Without that link, the portfolio becomes a list of projects and leadership cannot say which ones support the strategy. Ask to see a project created from a strategic objective and the reverse path, from the objective to the projects that move it.
2. Portfolio prioritization
Prioritization defines which projects start, which continue and which pause. The software should apply explicit criteria, such as value, risk and capacity, in the same way to all projects and record the result for the committee. Check whether the tool supports methods such as the project prioritization matrix and whether it separates corporate projects from area projects.
3. Consolidated view and portfolio dashboards
The consolidated view brings all projects onto one screen, with phase, cost, progress and risk. The software must feed the executive board’s dashboardopens in a new tab without manual consolidation in a spreadsheet. Test the generation of an executive report, such as the one page report, with real data from your portfolio.
4. Governance and approval workflow
Governance, in PMO software, means that an initiative only becomes a project after approval, that changes in scope, deadline and cost go through a request and that every decision is recorded with the owner, date and time. Ask to follow an initiative from the approval request to closure, including a change request with a new baseline.
5. Resource and capacity management
Capacity is the limit that keeps the portfolio from promising more than the company can deliver. The software should show the allocation of people and budget by project and flag overload before a new project is approved. Ask how the tool uses available capacity in the prioritization decision.
6. Risks, costs and budget
The PMO needs to compare budgeted against actual in each project and track risks with an owner and a response plan. Check whether the tool separates expense from investment, supports a risk register along the lines of the risk matrixopens in a new tab and issues an alert when cost or schedule leave the expected range.
7. Predictive, agile and hybrid methodologies
Mid-sized and large companies rarely work with a single methodology. The software should track projects in schedule and Gantt, typical of the waterfall methodology, in Kanbanopens in a new tab, for continuous workflow, and in Scrum, for delivery in short cycles, all in the same environment. That way the PMO consolidates the portfolio without merging reports from different tools.
8. Project monitoring and deviation alerts
Project monitoring is the ability to see a deviation while there is still time to correct it. The software should highlight projects with cost, progress, risk or technical indicators outside the expected range and show planned against actual, as in the S-curve. Ask to see the attention panel of a portfolio with delayed projects.
9. Integrations and security
The PMO rarely starts from scratch. The technology team uses Jira or Azure DevOps, finance uses the ERP and leadership follows everything in dashboards. The software must coexist with these tools, respect permissions by profile and by unit and keep an audit trail. Ask the vendor which integrations exist, how profile-based access works, how the platform meets GDPR and Brazil’s LGPD, and which security standards it follows, such as SOC 2.
10. Implementation, adoption and total cost
The cost of PMO software goes beyond the license: it includes implementation time, workflow configuration and training for the PMO and project managers. Compare the realistic implementation timeline, vendor support, ease of use for people outside the PMO and the total cost over an annual management cycle. A platform the team avoids using does not deliver visibility, however complete it may be.
How to compare PMO software in practice
To compare vendors, assign each of the 10 criteria a weight from 1 to 3, according to your company’s priority, and a score from 1 to 5 per vendor. The final score is the sum of weight × score and reaches 150 points when all weights are 3 and all scores are 5. A criterion with weight 3 and score 4, for example, adds up to 12 points.
Use the same table in every demo and ask each vendor to show evidence with real data from your portfolio. The right-hand column describes what justifies the top score.
| Criterion | Evidence for a score of 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alignment with strategy | Project created from a strategic objective and navigation from the objective to the projects that move it |
| 2 | Portfolio prioritization | Value, risk and capacity applied to all projects, with the result recorded for the committee |
| 3 | Consolidated view and dashboards | Executive panel generated without manual consolidation in a spreadsheet |
| 4 | Governance and approval workflow | History of stage, owner, date and time, and change request with a new baseline |
| 5 | Resources and capacity | Allocation by project and overload alert before a new project is approved |
| 6 | Risks, costs and budget | Budgeted against actual by project and risk register with owner and response plan |
| 7 | Methodologies | Schedule and Gantt, Kanban and Scrum tracked in the same portfolio |
| 8 | Monitoring and deviation alerts | Panel with projects outside the expected range in cost, progress, risk or technical indicator |
| 9 | Integrations and security | Integration with the team's and finance's tools, permissions by profile, data protection compliance and security certification |
| 10 | Implementation, adoption and total cost | Implementation timeline, support and total cost of an annual cycle presented in writing |
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How Stratws meets these criteria
Stratwsopens in a new tab is Siteware’s platform for strategic and performance management, and project and portfolio management is one of the ways to apply it. The PMO gains data and governance to decide where to invest, what to prioritize and what to pause, and the project team keeps the execution tool it already uses.
| Criterion | How Stratws meets it |
|---|---|
| 1. Alignment with strategy | The project is born linked to the strategic objective it moves |
| 2. Portfolio prioritization | Priority is defined by value, risk and capacity |
| 3. Consolidated view and dashboards | Portfolio overview with budgeted against actual for expense and investment, projects by phase and separation between corporate and area projects, in automated panels |
| 4. Governance and approval workflow | Approval workflow with history of stage, owner, date and time, and change requests with a new baseline |
| 6. Risks, costs and budget | Budgeted against actual and flagging of projects with cost or risk outside the expected range |
| 7. Predictive, agile and hybrid methodologies | Schedule and Gantt, Kanban and Scrum in the same environment |
| 8. Monitoring and deviation alerts | Attention panel with planned against actual |
| 9. Integrations and security | Coexistence with Jira and Azure DevOps, access by management unit, LGPD and the SOC 2 security standard |
The capacity (5) and implementation (10) criteria depend on the size and maturity of each portfolio and are best evaluated in a demo with your own projects.
More than 800 companies trust their management to Stratws, across more than 20 sectors of the economy, and the platform already totals 25,204 projects managed.
See how Stratws gives the PMO command of the portfolio, from initiative to result: learn about Stratws project and portfolio managementopens in a new tab.
Frequently asked questions about PMO software
What is PMO software?
PMO software is a platform that brings projects, costs, risks and results into a single portfolio view. It lets the project office prioritize initiatives, track deviations and report results to leadership.
How do you choose PMO software?
Evaluate the software against 10 criteria: alignment with strategy, prioritization, consolidated view, governance, capacity, risks and costs, methodologies, monitoring, integrations and security, and implementation and total cost. Ask for a demo with real data from your portfolio and give each criterion a score from 1 to 5.
What are the main PMO tools?
The main PMO tools fall into spreadsheets, task and board tools, tools for agile teams and portfolio platforms. The choice depends on the number of projects and the level of governance the PMO needs to exercise. The options table in this article compares the categories.
What is the difference between PMO software and a project management tool?
A project management tool organizes a team’s tasks, deadlines and deliverables. PMO software consolidates all projects into a portfolio view, with prioritization, governance, costs and risks. The first answers what the team delivers, and the second, what the company should prioritize.
Can a spreadsheet manage a project portfolio?
It works for small portfolios, with few projects and one person in charge of updates. As the number of projects grows, consolidation, decision history and deviation alerts come to depend on formulas and manual routine, and divergent versions multiply. At that point, a portfolio platform starts to pay off.
What are the 3 types of PMO?
The three classic types are the supportive PMO, which offers templates, training and consulting, the controlling PMO, which requires adherence to methodologies and standards, and the directive PMO, which takes over direct management of projects. The more active the PMO’s role, the greater the need for approval workflow, history and reports in the software.
About the author
Equipe Siteware
Content produced and reviewed by the Siteware team, curated by internal experts in strategic management and corporate performance.