Today’s portfolios live in a mess of disconnected tools. Delivery teams run agile boards, PMs keep schedules in spreadsheets, finance tracks costs in another system, and strategic plans sit in slide decks. I’ve seen the same pattern across industries: lots of local optimization, very little portfolio-level visibility. Project portfolio management software enables leaders to see the big picture by connecting overall strategy with project details, supporting better decision-making.
When priorities shift every quarter (or every week), leaders need a single way to translate strategy into sequenced work, capacity-aware commitments, and measurable value. That’s the promise of project portfolio management software: to help organizations manage project portfolios effectively. In this article, I highly recommend the following products:
1. Lark — A collaborative foundation for intake, approvals, and visibility
2. Planview — Deep planning and scenarios for complex portfolios
3. Microsoft Project & Microsoft Planner — Familiar and flexible within M365
4. Atlassian — Agile portfolios with real delivery signals
5. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management — Intake to funding with enterprise controls
6. Smartsheet — Grid-first, fast to roll out
7. Sciforma — Structured governance and cost control
8. Planisware — Scenario modeling for R&D and product portfolios
9. monday.com — Friendly, automated, and incremental
10. Adobe Workfront — Built for marketing and creative operations
What is project portfolio management software?
At its core, project portfolio management software is a system that helps organizations select, prioritize, fund, and govern a set of initiatives in service of strategic goals. It differs from classic project management tools (which focus on executing a single project) by operating at the portfolio level—spanning many projects, products, and programs, where program management plays a key role in aligning related projects to organizational objectives—and emphasizing decision-making, trade-offs, and value realization.
Think of it as the control tower, not the cockpit. While delivery tools steer day-to-day tasks, PPM solutions provide the visibility and governance to direct the overall flight path. Project portfolio management software consolidates project portfolio data and project data to provide real-time visibility and support better governance.
Core capabilities that matter
Portfolio planning and alignment
Map initiatives to strategic objectives, themes, and OKRs
Build multi-level portfolios (enterprise, division, program) with clear roadmaps
Maintain a portfolio registry and a repeatable intake process
Project planning and creating a comprehensive project plan are essential for mapping initiatives to strategic objectives and ensuring structured execution.
Scenario modeling and prioritization
Compare investment options using scoring models and constraints
Run “what-if” scenarios to understand trade-offs before committing
Sequence work against dependencies and milestones
Resource and capacity management
Understand team or role-based capacity across time horizons. For example, Lark is a good tool for resource management across time zones.
Model demand vs. supply; identify hotspots and bottlenecks
Allocate resources at varying fidelity
Assess resource availability to ensure projects are feasible given current capacity.
Analytics and decision support
Dashboards that surface portfolio health, risks, and value realization
KPI and benefits tracking from proposal through delivery
Audit trails and governance controls for accountability
Budget tracking and financial management features help organizations monitor costs and align spending with strategic goals.
Why project portfolio management software matters now
Here’s the context that makes PPM software essential now:
Fragmented toolchains: Work is scattered across issue trackers, shared drives, email, and PM tools. Without a portfolio layer, it’s hard to know what the organization is actually funding, how initiatives relate to outcomes, or which dependencies will block delivery.
Constrained budgets: Budgets aren’t unlimited, and scrutiny is rising. Leaders want to fund the right bets, stop low-impact work earlier, and validate benefits. PPM software brings financial tracking, statements of value, and benefits realization into one picture. It also supports better investment decisions by helping leaders prioritize funding for the highest-value projects.
Faster change cycles: Strategy evolves quickly. Whether it’s a regulatory push, competitive move, or a market inflection, the ability to replan with scenario modeling—and to do it without weeks of Excel wrangling—is a real advantage.
Done well, project portfolio management software gives you a common language for decisions: which initiatives to start, continue, pause, or stop; how to sequence work across limited teams; and how to pivot responsibly when the world changes.
Who needs project portfolio management software and when to adopt it
Different roles come to PPM with different needs. The common thread is the desire to translate strategy into funded, feasible, and trackable work. Selecting the right PPM software is crucial for ensuring that strategy is effectively turned into actionable and measurable projects.
Who benefits most
PMO leaders
Goal: Establish consistent intake, prioritization, and reporting
Need: A single source of truth for the portfolio and a way to orchestrate governance without excessive overhead
CIOs and CTOs
Goal: Align tech investments with business strategy and manage risk
Need: Visibility across product and project portfolios, capacity constraints, and dependencies, especially in hybrid delivery environments
Product and delivery leaders
Goal: Balance roadmaps against shared capacity and cross-team dependencies
Need: Portfolio-level visibility, scenario modeling, and light-weight governance that doesn’t slow teams down
Finance stakeholders
Goal: Ensure funding goes to the highest-value outcomes and stays within constraints
Need: Consistent financial tracking, benefit realization views, and integration to actuals for variance analysis
Other stakeholders—security, legal, compliance—also benefit from audit trails, approvals, and traceability that PPM systems make easier.
Product recommendations: 10 project portfolio management software options
1. Lark: A collaborative foundation for intake, approvals, and visibility
Overview
Lark unifies messaging, documents, meetings, tasks, approvals, and a zero‑code database into one workspace. It works as adaptable project portfolio management software for teams that want clear intake, fast decisions, and execution signals in sync with the portfolio. This section highlights Lark Base, Lark Tasks, and Lark Meetings, then covers Messenger, Docs, Approvals. The framing aligns with what buyers look for in a project portfolio management software comparison and what often stands out in project portfolio management software reviews.
Key features
Lark Base: Your portfolio registry and single source of truth:
Lark Base is the portfolio source of truth. It blends spreadsheet simplicity with a relational database, so PMOs can model initiatives, benefits, risks, dependencies, and funding—without code. All the team members can share and use the same database, which makes project management more efficient.
Custom data models and views: PMO can build tables for proposals, initiatives, epics, risks, and benefits. You can also link records to keep context intact. Base also offers multiple views, such as grid, kanban, calendar, and timeline views tailored for PMO, finance, and delivery.
Automation—no code workflow: Lark Base enables teams to create custom automated workflows and relational databases without extensive coding skills. This approach democratizes automation, allowing project management easier. It orchestrates multi‑step workflows with triggers, conditions, and actions: assign owners, set dates, notify in Messenger, or start approvals.
Control and auditability: Lark Base ensures data security through advanced permission controls and security levels. Project administrators can set granular permissions for different roles, controlling access to tables, views, records, and fields. This ensures only authorized users can view or edit specific data, protecting confidentiality and privacy in this project portfolio.
Lark Tasks: From funded bets to executable work
Lark Tasks is a focused task management layer that helps teams structure work, break big initiatives into actionable steps, and keep delivery aligned with the portfolio. It fits neatly into a project portfolio management software flow by turning funded items into clear execution plans.
Flexible planning: PMO can plan milestones, sprints, and releases with Lark Tasks. You can create task lists to group related work by initiative, release, team, or theme. You can also build a lightweight dashboard to visualize key metrics and monitor progress at a glance.
Connection with Lark ecosystem: Lark Tasks can seamlessly connect to Base, triggering automated task loops, which makes your project portfolio easy to manage. Also, you can link tasks to Lark Base initiatives to keep execution signals in sync with portfolio status.
Lark Docs: Shared context, fewer silos
Lark Docs brings real‑time co‑editing, visual whiteboarding, and tight links to portfolio data into one space. It helps teams write specs, review business cases, and capture decisions without jumping across tools. Connected to Lark Base and Lark Tasks, it acts like the knowledge backbone inside your project portfolio management software setup—clear, current, and traceable.
Live co‑editing: All the project members can work together on specs, business cases, user stories, risk plans, and meeting notes with comments, suggestions, and @mentions. Using Lark Docs, version history, change tracking, and per‑section comments make reviews fast and auditable. Docs are easier to co-editing and manage.
Centralized wiki space: Lark Wiki breaks down silos by giving everyone a single, structured workspace for knowledge. All the docs can be stored here, making it super convenient to trace and search. It reduces duplication and fragmentation across tools. It helps you to create canonical pages for policies, PMO standards, and portfolio definitions.
Lark Meetings: Decisions, follow‑ups, and real traceability
Lark Meetings streamlines how decisions get made and tracked across the portfolio cycle.
Agenda to action: Team members can build agendas in Calendar and invite discussion groups—pull in the proposals, scenarios, and risks you’ll discuss; Capture decisions and owners live during the meeting and push action items into Tasks.
Decisions that stick: AI-meeting notes can automatically capture the key points during your meetings. And these notes can be stored into Lark Docs in one platform. Thus, all your approvals and decisions are timestamped, searchable, and auditable.
Best for
Teams that want an adaptable, collaborative layer to operationalize intake, governance, and dependency management alongside formal project portfolio management software.
PMOs moving from spreadsheets to a structured yet approachable portfolio registry.
Organizations piloting a lightweight setup before scaling into enterprise project portfolio management software.
Pricing
Lark offers a cost‑efficient path to project portfolio management software when compared with many enterprise suites. You get a unified workspace—Base, Tasks, Meetings, Messenger, Docs, Wiki, Approvals, and automation—without stitching together multiple vendors or paying for heavy modules you won’t use on day one. This reduces licensing, integration, and admin overhead.
Learn more about Lark pricing here:
👉 You can also try Lark’s Savings Calculator: Switching to Lark’s Pro plan can lead to significant cost savings— for example, a 100-employee company using Slack, Google Workspace, and Airtable could save approximately $25,200 annually by consolidating their tools with Lark.
2. Planview: Deep planning and scenarios for complex portfolios
Image source: planview.com
Overview
Planview is an enterprise project portfolio management software suite known for deep portfolio planning, scenario modeling, and capacity management across complex, hybrid environments.
Key features
Advanced scenario modeling and portfolio optimization
Role and team capacity planning with dependency awareness
Financial tracking tied to portfolio items and benefits realization
Support for lean and agile at scale
Best for
Large organizations with complex portfolios that require robust governance, capacity realism, and scenario depth.
Pricing
Enterprise-oriented licensing with modular capabilities. Expect higher investment aligned to advanced features, integrations, and governance. Best framed as enterprise project portfolio management software.
3. Microsoft Project & Microsoft Planner: Familiar and flexible
Image source: microsoft.com
Overview
A Microsoft‑first approach that blends Project and Planner with Power BI and Power Automate to create a flexible project portfolio management software layer inside the M365 ecosystem.
Key features
Portfolio dashboards and reports in Power BI
Intake and approvals via low‑code forms and flows
Teams integration for updates and collaboration
Data connections across Project, Planner, and other sources
Best for
Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 that want familiar UI, strong reporting, and configurable workflows.
Pricing
Per‑user licensing with options to extend through Power Platform. Accessible starting tiers for pilots; scales with user count and feature scope.
4. Atlassian: Agile portfolios with real delivery signals
Image source: atlassian.com
Overview
Atlassian connects strategic alignment with delivery data, rolling up Jira work into portfolio roadmaps and objectives. It is a frequent pick in a project portfolio management software comparison for agile‑heavy teams.
Key features
Advanced Roadmaps for multi‑team planning and dependency visualization
Jira Align for strategy‑to‑execution alignment at scale
Real‑time progress from developer workflows
Custom fields and views for portfolio stakeholders
Best for
Product and engineering organizations scaling agile who need portfolio visibility without leaving Jira.
Pricing
Cloud tiers for Jira Software and Advanced Roadmaps; Jira Align positioned for enterprise. Costs increase with user volume and governance depth.
5. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management: Intake to funding with enterprise controls
Image source: servicenow.com
Overview
ServiceNow SPM ties demand, funding, and execution into one governed workflow, making it a strong enterprise project portfolio management software option for organizations that value compliance and end‑to‑end auditability.
Key features
Intake‑to‑funding workflows with approvals and benefit tracking
Portfolio analytics with governance and risk controls
Integration with ITSM, risk, and security operations
Robust audit trails and role‑based access
Best for
Enterprises standardizing on ServiceNow and seeking tight governance and cross‑enterprise process consistency.
Pricing
Enterprise subscriptions tailored to modules and scope. Positioned at the higher end, reflecting integrated workflows and compliance capabilities.
6. Smartsheet: Grid-first, fast to roll out
Image source: smartsheet.com
Overview
Smartsheet delivers grid‑first work management with portfolio rollups and standardized delivery, offering a fast on‑ramp into project portfolio management software without heavy change.
Key features
Spreadsheet‑like UI for quick portfolio registry setup
Control Center for standardized templates and portfolio rollups
Resource Management for practical capacity planning
Dashboards for clear executive and PMO visibility
Best for
Business‑led PMOs and fast‑moving teams that want quick time‑to‑value and incremental portfolio rigor.
Pricing
Per-user tiers with add-ons for Control Center and Resource Management. Friendly for pilots; total cost scales with the number of creators and portfolio features.
7. Sciforma: Structured governance and cost control
Image source: capterra.com
Overview
Sciforma is a classic PPM solution with strong scheduling, resource planning, and financial controls, often considered in project portfolio management software reviews for structured governance.
Key features
Stage‑gate workflows, approvals, and audit logs
Detailed scheduling and resource capacity planning
Budgeting, forecasting, and benefit tracking
Configurable frameworks to match PMO standards
Best for
Organizations that need structured governance, predictable delivery phases, and robust financial oversight.
Pricing
Enterprise and mid-market licensing with configurable modules. Investment aligns to breadth of capabilities and level of customization.
8. Planisware: Scenario modeling for R&D and product portfolios
Image source: planisware.com
Overview
Planisware emphasizes scenario modeling and product/R&D portfolio governance, making it a strong fit for engineering‑driven and regulated environments within enterprise project portfolio management software categories.
Key features
Portfolio optimization under capacity, risk, and regulatory constraints
Stage‑gate and complex lifecycle support for product development
Financial integration and traceability over long horizons
Advanced analytics for multi‑year decisions
Best for
R&D‑heavy, engineering, and regulated industries needing rigorous scenarios and traceability.
Pricing
Enterprise-focused pricing. Tailored deployments influence cost, reflecting advanced scenario modeling and compliance features.
9. monday.com: Friendly, automated, and incremental
Image source: monday.com
Overview
monday.com offers a friendly, automation‑ready platform with PMO templates that make it easy to build portfolio visibility and approvals step by step—often appearing in best project portfolio management software 10 lists for approachability.
Key features
Customizable boards with clear statuses and ownership
Automations for intake, approvals, and alerts
Dashboards for portfolio summaries and trends
Easy integrations with common work tools
Best for
Small‑to‑mid teams building project portfolio management software capabilities incrementally.
Pricing
Tiered per-seat plans, with templates and automation limits varying by tier. Accessible for pilots; scales predictably as teams expand.
10. Adobe Workfront: Built for marketing and creative operations
Image source: adobe.com
Overview
Workfront is built for marketing and creative operations, aligning campaign intake, approvals, and resource planning with portfolio views. It often features in top project portfolio management software lineups for creative teams.
Key features
Marketing/creative intake and content approval workflows
Resource balancing across campaigns and channels
Templates aligned to creative production
Portfolio dashboards for executive reporting
Best for
Marketing PMOs and creative operations that need portfolio control tied to creative workflows.
Pricing
Enterprise-oriented packages aligned to functional roles and modules. Investment reflects specialized creative workflows and integrations.
Practical examples: From idea to funded outcome with project portfolio management software
Step 1: Intake and triage
Start with a concise intake form for new ideas, capturing the core problem, the expected outcome, a rough cost range, and the potential value. As submissions arrive, auto‑route each idea to a defined triage group using clear categories such as strategic fit, regulatory need, or customer impact, so the right people see the right items fast. Keep every comment, document, and clarifying question linked directly to the intake record to preserve context and reduce back‑and‑forth, ensuring a smooth handoff into lightweight evaluation.
Step 2: Lightweight business case
Move qualified ideas into a standardized, lightweight business case that outlines expected benefits, key risks, major dependencies, and high‑level capacity needs. Ask only for the information necessary to make an informed go/no‑go decision, avoiding heavy detail until it’s truly required. Tag each idea to strategic themes and OKRs to support later portfolio optimization and consistent reporting.
For example, you can use pre-build Lark templates to support your project portfolio creation:
🙋 Try this KPI Evaluation Management Template
Step 3: Prioritization and scenario modeling
Evaluate each proposal with a simple, transparent scoring model that considers strategic alignment, value, risk, and urgency. Run one or two practical scenarios—such as “optimize for value under current capacity” and “accelerate regulatory items with adjusted staffing”—to see how choices shift under different constraints. Let the tool surface trade‑offs automatically, highlighting what moves up, what slips, and where dependencies collide. The result is a set of clear scenarios that help leaders choose with eyes open, which is also the heart of a project portfolio management software comparison when demoing vendors: how quickly and credibly can you model change?
Step 4: Capacity‑aware planning
Translate chosen scenarios into a plan that respects real constraints by planning primarily by team and role rather than by individuals. Surface bottlenecks early—especially when two high‑priority initiatives depend on the same scarce skills—and make these conflicts visible to drive sequencing conversations. Agree on an execution order that aligns with capacity and key milestones, creating a roadmap that is both ambitious and achievable without overloading teams.
Step 5: Delivery signal and benefits tracking
Connect execution to portfolio oversight by syncing status and delivery metrics from the tools teams already use, avoiding duplicate data entry. Track expense, forecasts, and benefit hypotheses in a single view tied to each portfolio item, so financials and progress stay aligned. As actuals arrive, update benefits realization, note which assumptions held and which did not, and capture learnings that inform future prioritization and scenario planning. This steady delivery signal closes the loop from idea to outcomes.
Evaluation guide: Choosing the right project portfolio management software
Prioritization and scenario planning
I look for project portfolio management software that offers flexible scoring models and quick what‑if planning. I should be able to adjust weights, add criteria, and test assumptions without heavy rework. Side‑by‑side scenario views help compare funding limits, timelines, and capacity constraints, then commit the chosen path to an executable plan. For example, I read a lot about Lark customer stories, learning about Lark usage under different scenarios, which make me believe that Lark is a good choice.
Capacity and resource management
Capacity planning needs to match how teams operate. Planning by teams and roles is usually more reliable than micro‑allocations by hour. The platform should surface hotspots, show skills conflicts, and make sequencing impacts obvious.
Clear tasks and heatmaps help, along with simple ways to model hiring, vendor support, or temporary reassignments. Lark Tasks groups work by team or role and flags workload pressure early, keeping portfolio plans realistic.
Analytics and executive visibility
Analytics should inform, not overwhelm. I value Lark Base dashboards that focus on a few essentials: alignment to strategic themes, capacity pressure points, delivery health and risk, and funding status. Drill‑downs should answer “why” without a maze of clicks. Executive, PMO, and team views should each feel tailored but share common definitions. Consistency keeps conversations grounded. This is a frequent theme in project portfolio management software reviews and a practical lens for a project portfolio management software comparison.
Governance and traceability
Governance is essential, and it should be smooth. Stage gates, approvals, and audit trails need to live inside normal workflows with the minimum effective process. I want clear rules for who approves what, at which thresholds, and with what evidence. Changing history on scope, cost, timing, and benefits helps explain how decisions evolved. This level of traceability is expected from enterprise project portfolio management software and appears often in best project portfolio management software 10 lists.
Conclusion
Project portfolio management software turns strategy into action. It gives leaders one place to align goals, pick the right bets, and plan against real capacity. With clear intake, sensible prioritization, and honest scenarios, you can explain trade‑offs, fund with confidence, and prove value with data. The path is simple: start light with a clean portfolio registry and approvals, add scenario modeling and capacity views, then connect delivery and finance for a closed loop. Use a short pilot to validate workflows and keep governance lean.
As you compare options, focus on fit: integrations, role‑based views, and the ability to scale without complexity. That’s how you move from scattered tools to a coherent, outcome‑driven portfolio. If you want a friendly starting point that standardizes intake and keeps teams aligned, try Lark. Its Base, Tasks, and Meetings make collaboration easy, and it pairs well with deeper platforms when you need enterprise breadth.
FAQs
What is the best project portfolio management software?
There is no universal winner. The best project portfolio management software is the one that fits your scale, governance needs, and delivery style. If you need deep scenarios and capacity planning, shortlist enterprise options. If intake and cross‑team collaboration are the gap, start with a collaboration‑first layer and grow from there.
Does Microsoft Project have portfolio management?
Yes. Microsoft Project can support portfolio views when paired with Microsoft Planner, Power BI, and Power Automate. Many teams use this setup to create dashboards, approvals, and light prioritization. It suits organizations that prefer Microsoft tools and want a familiar experience.
What software do portfolio managers use?
Portfolio managers use a mix. Common choices include Planview, ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management, Sciforma, and Planisware for enterprise needs; Atlassian for agile roll‑ups; Smartsheet and monday.com for business‑led PMOs; and collaboration layers like Lark to operationalize intake, approvals, and updates. Your choice depends on whether you need depth, speed, or both.
What is the difference between EPM and PPM?
PPM focuses on selecting, prioritizing, funding, and governing a set of initiatives to achieve strategy. It emphasizes scenarios, capacity, and value.
EPM, or enterprise portfolio management, extends PPM across the entire organization. It covers multiple portfolios, stricter governance, and broad integrations. Think of it as PPM scaled for the enterprise.
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