There is a fifth category that needs to be addressed. First, if you missed our earlier posts, click below to access the previous posts in this series on project management software categories:
Project Management Software Categories: Introduction
Project Management Software Category #1: Simple / Stand Alone Tools
Project Management Software Category #2: Collaborative Tools
Project Management Software Category #3: Mid-Size Tools
Project Management Software Category #4: High-End Tools
The fifth category has been getting a lot of press lately, and that is the Project Portfolio Management (or PPM) category. In some ways, I am reluctant to put this into a separate category. Why? Because it really moves beyond project management and gets into a concept called portfolio management. We may address that in a later post, but for now our focus is strictly on project management. However, I include this in its own category because when organizations are looking for project management software they may be specifically looking for these types of tools.
One more note on the categorization is that these tools are almost a hybrid in that some of them are mid-sized tools and some of them are high-end tools, with the characteristics and drawbacks that come with the associated category. It is my belief that a lot of these are turning into higher-end tools because there can be a lot of complexity that comes with the concept of portfolio management.
Because of all that, characteristics of tools in this project management software category are a little harder to define. They may include characteristics of tools in the mid-size category, or they may include characteristics of tools in the high-end category. You will have to look back on those posts to analyze where a particular tool fits.
The defining characteristic of this category is that these tools include a focus on portfolio management. A definition and discussion of portfolio management, especially from an IT perspective, can be found in many places, such as Wikipedia. In short, you can think about managing portfolios of projects as you would manage a portfolio of investments. Projects are systematically managed in "portfolios" for better governance. The tools in this category support that process.
The primary benefit of this category is that they support the process of portfolio management, which may be important to a company that is heading in that direction.
The drawbacks of this category are two-fold. First, there is an inherent complexity that is added because you are now going beyond project management, and that must be represented in the tool. Second, many organizations struggle with getting their basic project management straight, much less trying to handle portfolio management. These tools may not be a good fit in that case.
What that means is that you should consider tools in this category if your organization is mature enough for portfolio management, you already have well defined project processes and discipline, and portfolio management is a strategic initiative for your organization.
Next time we will wrap up our discussion of the project management software categories.