Project Portfolio Management Tool Evaluation Aid

Criteria Category 1:
Database Management and Other General Considerations

Data Management

Weight

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Easy to create, change, delete, and view projects and project data.

Accommodates all project types and project information

Supports entry of annotative comments and appending documents,

images, and links for project documentation

Accommodates hundreds/thousands of projects

Supports data import from your existing systems and databases (e.g.,
planning, financial systems)

Supports data export to your existing systems and databases

Supports dependency links among projects

Provides data cut-and-paste, project cloning, and data roll-over

Provides completeness/error checks and data warnings

10 Allows multiple portfolios and portfolio hierarchies (parent-child links)

11

Allows dynamic portfolios (portfolios defined based on latest project

data)

12 Provides search, filter, and sort

13 Provides data archiving

14 Provides statistical analysis of historical data (e.g., trend analysis)

Governance and Security

Weight

15 Accommodates hundreds/thousands of users

16

Provides security (encryption), controlled access and change privileges,

and audit trail (who changed what when)

17 Provides PPM workflow guidance, status, and progress reporting

Displays and Reporting

18

Able to slice, dice, and aggregate data with ability to load and change
aggregation hierarchies

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Able to slice, dice, and aggregate data with ability to load and change
aggregation hierarchies
Easy to generate useful, understandable, schedulable displays and
19
reports
18

0
0

20 Provides dashboard views plus ability to drill down

21 Allows users to configure/customize/format views, graphs, and reports

22

Provides document management (document storage, read, save-as,

check-in, check-out, version control, history, etc.)

23 Supports multiple languages and currencies

Communication and Collaboration

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Supports mass communication and notification (via home page "bulletin

board, mass emails, etc.)
Provides targeted communication and notification (selective, rule-based
25
notifications via email)
Supports real-time group communication (e.g., on-line chats, discussion
26
forums, instant messaging)
24

Help and Training

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27 Tool delivered with training for installation and operation

28

Tool incorporates help features (e.g., mouse roll-over, documentation,

educational videos, on-line training)

Delivery

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Provides desired delivery platform (on-demand service, desktop

installation, web-based, etc.)
Supports your server and workstation operating systems and database
30
environment
29

Vendor

0
0

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31 Vendor has expertise (in PPM, your industry, etc.)

32

Vendor can be counted on to provide on-going support (maintenance,

enhancements, warranties, escrow policy, etc.)

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Instructions

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Project Portfolio Management Tool Evaluation Aid

Criteria Category 2:
Project Evaluation and Portfolio Optimization

Decision Aid
1
2
3
4
5

Weight

Evaluates real project choices (e.g., choice among alternative project

versions, do project now vs. do next year)
Accommodates mandated projects (including requirement that at least
one project version be funded)
Accounts for choice dependencies (e.g., project B may be selected only
if version 2 of project A is selected)
Able to evaluate alternative spending levels for pooled projects (e.g.,
what fraction of similar tasks to complete)

0
0
0
0

Able to evaluate and optimize multi-year plans and scenarios

Financial Analysis

Weight

Allows business-case cash-flow analysis over project/asset life-cycle

6 with summary metrics (e.g., NPV, IRR, payback period)

7

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0

Supports after-tax financial analysis, including forecasting using pro

forma statements

Risk Analysis

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Quantifies project risk

Quantifies project deferral risk (risks if the project is not conducted)

10 Supports evaluation of risk-reward tradeoffs

Project Evaluation

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11 Provides "out of box" project evaluation metrics

12 Supports customizable/user-defined metrics, scales, models, logic

Able to support sophisticated computations/simulations (more than

rate-and-weight scoring)
Able to address non-financial project benefits (e.g., impacts on
14
corporate image, service quality, learning, safety)
Able to capture and model alignment with strategy and/or strategic
15
objectives
Able to provide/utilize default data/uncertainty ranges & turn off
16
measures if data is unavailable or too time-consuming to acquire
13

0
0
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Project Valuation

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Able to quantify project value in dollar units (to allow direct comparison
with project cost)
Value estimation based on comparing doing vs. not doing project (not
18
doing project can produce negative value)
Able to adjust project value based on risk and risk tolerance (risk19
adjusted project value)
17

Prioritization and Portfolio Optimization

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Provides quantitative (cardinal) measure of project priority (not just

project rank)
Able to account for project urgency as well as cost and value when
21
computing priorities
20

0
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22 Able to compute and display the efficient frontier of portfolios

23 Provides true portfolio optimization (solves "knapsack" problem)

24

25
26
27
28

Allows multiple constraints (e.g., multi-year costs, separate constraints

for different org. units, resource constraints)
Able to optimize/re-optimize portfolios with some projects being "forced
in"
Displays individual sources of project and portfolio value (e.g., financial,
customer service, safety)
Selects project versions based on budget (e.g., lower-cost project
version may be optimal under tighter budget constraint)
Supports tiered/staged portfolio optimization (to allow business unit
priorities to be optimized/finalized prior to enterprise optimization)

29 Allows setting performance goals/targets for a subset of portfolios

0
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Provides "sand box analysis" (local data entry/analysis prior to saving to

central database)

31 Able to provides real-time feedback to users on impact of project inputs

32 Provides mechanisms for preventing/minimizing input "gaming"

30

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Project Portfolio Management Tool Evaluation Aid

Criteria Category 3:
Project Planning and Project Management

Project Planning
1
2
3
4
5

Weight

Supports workplan development (via templates, etc.), controls plan

creation/modification/deletion, and provides plan storage
Provides project baseline tracking, version control, audit trail, and plan
history

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0
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Allows linking mult--level project and task plans

Able to compute total project costs (e.g., via labor hours, rates, burden,
materials and other expenses)
Allows defining projct-specific phases, gating processes, and
milestones

0
0

Supports timing and scheduling (e.g., via Gantt charts and Pert charts

Provide compliance-based processes (e.g., PMBOK, SDLC, ISO 9000,

Sarbanes-Oxley, CMMI)

Supports project risk assessment and risk mitigation planning

Workflow Management

Weight

Supports workflow management (generates individual task lists, reports

status, routes action notifications, supports approvals, etc.)
Provides template library for project tasks (charter, issues log, request
10
forms, etc.) with ability to add, modify & save templates
9

0
0

11 Provides meeting schedule with automated invites

Supports issue tracking and management (e.g., issue definition,

assigning to issue owners, converting issues to tasks)
Provides change management (change reporting, approvals, change
13
impact analysis)
Povides analytics and project trade-offs for supporting task level
14
decisions
Provides analytics/models for project performance assessment,
15
benefits measurement, and value realization management
12

Project Data and Status Reporting

Able to manually/auto load and selectively change project data
(start/end dates, units of work requied, etc.)
Able to capture, compute, and report real-time actuals (e.g., costs,
17
effort, and shedule status)
Able to aggregate cost, effort, and schedule data across pojects (e.g.,
18
Gantt dta roll-up)
16

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18
19
20
21
22
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Able to aggregate cost, effort, and schedule data across pojects (e.g.,
Gantt dta roll-up)
Able to calculate performance ratios manually or automatically at
secified points in time or at project milestones
Provides dashboard view of status of all projects with ability to drill
down
Computes/displays estimates of remaining work (hours to completion,
percent of wok completed, end-date forecasting, etc.)
Provides comparison of acutal vs. planned progress with variance
analysis, alerts, and rule-based notification
Supports project reporting/forecasting according to government
contracting requirements (e.g., earned value analysis - EVA)

0
0
0
0
0
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24 Supports risk monitoring and on-going multi-project risk management

Support for Accounting, Accual, Payroll, Billing, Etc.

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Able to use project status and project forecasts to update financial

budget forecasts
Able to capture and transmit project costs, expenses, commitments,
26
etc. for accounting.
Suppot preparation and generation fo wok oders for project and
27
accounting system integration
25

0
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28 Supports payroll and billing (e.g., expense reporting)

Project Close Out and Knowledge Management

Weight

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29 Supports verification of project deliverable acceptance criteria

30

Provides project outcome performance monitoring/reporting (e.g.,

project payback, benefits tracking)

31 Supports post-implementation reviews and lessons learned

32

0
0

Supports project management knowledge database for storage and

mining

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Project Portfolio Management Tool Evaluation Aid

Criteria Category 4:
Resource Management and Supply Demand Balancing

Resource Management
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Captures all people resource categories and allows segmentation

based on geography, organizationl unit, resource pool, etc.
Captures necessary information for characterizing individual resources
(e.g., skills, certifications, education, rates, interests)
Provides dashboard view with drill down to individual resource
availability (eg., by time, skill, location, assignments)
Tracks evolution and development of individual resources (e.g.,
experiences, skill growth)
Includes non-human resources (normal, consumable, perishable) for
non-human resource management

10
11
12
13

14
15
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18

0
0
0
0
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Provides automated, rule-based routing of updates regarding individual

resources (e.g., change in availability, rate)
Supports obtaining time-to-complete estimates directly from individuals
(which may provide more accurate availability estimates)

0
0

Weight

Allows specifying resource demand categories (e.g.,projects,

organization units, applications)
Supports formal resource request system (preparation of requests,
aggregate views by demand categories and over time, etc.)
Reports resource request and application status per your demand
management workflow process
Able to schedule requests based on priority, date, contribution, or other
criteria
Provides statistical analysis of requests (e.g., trend analysis of request
types, resonse times, escalations)

Resource Assignment
Supports top-down resource assignment (e.g., provides search and sort
based on roll, skill, location)
Supports bottom-up resource assignment (e.g., by allowing individuals
to review and select from availability assignments)
Supports time-phased resource booking to projects (by manually
loading resource assignments).
Support resource booking to organizational requests (for subsequent
assignment to projects)
Includes operational and administrative resource assignment (in
addition to project resource assignment)

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0

Supports resource queries (e.g., chargeable/non-chargeable hours)

Demand Management
9

Weight

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0
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Provides automated resource assignment (based on availability and

user defined criteria)

20 Provides scheduling engine for assigning and scheduling resources

21 Allows viewing resource assignments by individual and project

19

22

Allows manual changes to resource assignments for individual projects

after project initiation

23 Supports approval processes for the assignment of resources

24

Synchronization of availability schedules with personal calendars (to

incorporte non-project commitments, planned absences)

25 Supports non-human resource allocation management

Supply-Demand

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26 Summarizes utilization levels by resource category and over time

Compares resource supply-demand by resource category, identifies

gaps, bottlenecks, and over-allocated resources
Provides analytics to support planning for acquiring additional
28
internal/external resources
27

Time Tracking
29

0
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Exports project data to timesheet systems (e.g., ability to load time

sheet with allocated activities)

30 Includes employee timesheet system

31 Includes electronic time clock

32 Exports accepted time data to payroll and billing systems

0
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