How to Choose the Right Project
Management Software
Choosing the right software solution for your corporation can be a
daunting task. With so many software solutions it is hard to decide
which one will best meet your needs. It is important to review your
company's needs as well as the software functionality when making
your choice.

Corporate Process
 Project Management Approach. Does the system
allow you to alter the workflow process to suit
your company's needs?
 Corporate Fit. You will need to define the
parameters for this one based on your particular
company. For example, is the system
"methodical," "flexible," "rigorous," "fast,"
"systematic," etc.
 Multiple Sign offs. Can certain users be flagged as
having Sign Off ability and does the system route
the applicable document accordingly. Do you need
to time stamp the sign off?

System Solution
 Infrastructure Considerations. Do you want an
online solution or to self host on your own
systems?
 Integration. Does it need to integrate with any
other software in your company?
 Ease of Use. How technically savvy are your
users? Choosing a more intuitive and user-
friendly system helps with adaptability by your
users.
 Multiple User Profiles. Ability to develop
customized profiles for different types of users

Project Portfolio Management
 Interdependencies. Is the system capable of
showing interdependencies between projects?
 Assignment of resources. Can the system handle
resource management across multiple projects?
 Dashboard. Is there a Portfolio Dashboard to
track Key Performance Indicators? Can the
dashboard be altered for different project
stakeholders?
 Portfolio Budget Planning. Portfolio view of
project budgets and performance.
 Prioritization. Able to rank importance of projects
and apply across portfolio.

Project Governance
 Gating Process Management/Workflow process.
Is there a need for a pipeline process that guides
the project management process for projects
through various corporate project gates? Do the
statistics roll up into the Dashboard?
 Project Scheduling. Functionality to creat project
schedules with task, durations, start and finish
dates, dependencies, resource assignments, etc.
Ability to import or export to MS Project may be a
requirement you wish to have.
 Issue Tracking. Ability to flag and escalate issues.
Tracking mechanisms for Action Logs, Defect
Tracking, Status and Follow Up details.
 Budget Planning and Tracking. Able to set up
budget plan and tracking mechanism at individual
project level.

Team Collaboration
 Posts. Ability for team members to post questions
and suggestions.
 Polls. Able to poll team members and track votes
 Status Updates. Users are able to go in and
update progress.
 Calendar. Is there a calendar included? What kind
of functionality do you need? i.e. Ability to
integrate with MS Outlook
 Email Alerts. Ability to send out email reminders
of upcoming tasks.

Document Management
 Repository. Centralized file system for project
documentation.
 Access. Ability to manage user access to files and
folders.

Users
 Profiles. Number of user profiles required
 Concurrent Users. Number limit of users on the
system at once.
 Security Profiles. Can the system allow you to set
what users can and cannot see?