Portfolio, Program and Project Management Software typically offers some of the following functionality/features: 1. Portfolio Visualization: Provides users with multiple charts or dashboards to allow users to understand progress at a glance. A “picture speaks a thousand words” is the general idea. Users visualize and understand quicker than reading tables of numbers or large amounts of text 2. Project Data Management: The ability to store and manage project-related data centrally, such as project descriptions, budgets, timeframes and resource allocation 3. Scenario/What-If Analysis: Enables users to simulate various scenarios to help plan for worst and best case scenarios 4. Project Planning: Essential for project managers to outline the need, assumptions, any constraints, estimate resource costs (people, materials) and request approval 5. Demand and Resource Capacity Planning: This also relates to planning. It is used to identify whether sufficient resources are available for future projects 6. Project Prioritization: Aids in the organization's ability to prioritize projects in accordance with strategic objectives, financial constraints and business values 7. Scheduling: Once projects are active, this component lets staff be assigned to various tasks within specific timeframes 8. Resource management: Assists in allocating and controlling resources including people, tools and materials across one or more projects to ensure optimal resource usage 9. Financial Analysis: Provides tools such as tracking project budgets, estimating costs and calculating return on investment (ROI) 10. Risk Management: Identifying, evaluating and proactively managing project and portfolio risks, including risk mitigation 11. Project Collaboration: Through communication tools and document sharing options, project collaboration encourages cooperation between project teams, stakeholders and the PMO 12. Performance Monitoring: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or similar metrics and project milestones are tracked as part of performance monitoring, which gauges the progress and success of projects 13. Project Reporting and Dashboards: Static or customizable reports and dashboards offer insights into the performance of individual projects and the state of the portfolio 14. Security and Access Controls: User access restrictions, permissions based on user roles and access rights, as well as data encryption are approaches typically offered 15. Compliance and Governance: Audit trails and compliance reporting help firms meet internal governance standards and regulatory requirements 16. Customization: Users can customize the software to meet their unique needs by adding new fields or workflows 17. Mobile Accessibility: Web-based access through mobile phones or a mobile app, for users to access software on-the-go 18. Integration: The software may offer an API to integrate with existing software systems 19. User Training and Assistance: Provides training material (documentation, videos or live training) and support to assist users in using the product to its full potential These capabilities help firms effectively manage projects, programs and portfolios, from the planning stage, through to execution and monitoring of strategic objectives. Does every organization need all of these features? Not necessarily. Our best advice is: Work through this list and decide which features are important for your needs. Order them in terms of priority and focus on software firms covering your requirements well.