Product Management Software
Product management software allows businesses to more effectively:
- • Align their portfolio with the business strategy
- • Balance demand with resource capacity
- • Analyze the risk versus reward for various opportunities
- • Manage product initiatives from concept to closeout
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Designed to eliminate rigid departmentalization and streamline strategic execution, MPOWR Envision helps organizations build an execution strategy using open communication and organizational alignment. As a cloud-based executio...Read more
Project Insight (PI) is the work management hub helping companies manage projects, allocate personnel and track what work is being done throughout the entire organization. The intuitive software aggregates data from hig...Read more
Easy Projects is a cloud-based project management platform suitable for midsize organizations and enterprises. Easy Projects provides every contributing team member, project manager, executive, stakeholder or customer w...Read more
KeyedIn is a cloud-based project management solution for enterprise-level companies offering a suite with features, such as program management, professional services automation and project portfolio management application....Read more
monday.com, an award-winning collaboration and project management platform, helps teams plan together efficiently and execute complex projects to deliver results on time. monday.com team management and...Read more
Sciforma is a cloud-based project and portfolio management solution for enterprises that allows to strategically track and analyze project data and make relevant decisions. It can be sold as a stand-alone portfolio management, ...Read more
Cora Systems provide enterprise project and portfolio management solutions to global organizations and government agencies, such as Honeywell, Elanco, PwC, City of London and the UK’s National Health Service. Their soluti...Read more
Aysling is a cloud-based enterprise resource solution that can run an entire business, from leads to sales, through delivery to payments. Aysling is easy to deploy, configure, use, and manage while offering ...Read more
Workamajig is a cloud-based HTML5 project management solution designed for creative ad agencies and in-house advertising teams of all sizes. Key features include opportunity tracking, project management, time tracking, resource...Read more
Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a r...Read more
Software pricing tips
Read our Product Management Software Buyers GuideSubscription models
- Per employee/per month: This model allows you to pay a monthly fee for each of your employees.
- Per user/per month: Users pay a monthly fee for users—normally administrative users—rather than all employees.
Perpetual license
- This involves paying an upfront sum for the license to own the software and use it indefinitely.
- This is the more traditional model and is most common with on-premise applications and with larger businesses.
Rated best value for money
Workfront is the leader in enterprise work management. Workfront connects strategy to delivery, integrating people and data across the enterprise, and manages work from start to finish for the delivery of measurable outcomes, a...Read more
Scoro is a cloud-based professional services solution for small to midsize companies in advertising, consulting, IT and other industries. The solution provides a control hub that displays pending tasks, account information, key...Read more
Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload vie...Read more
Mavenlink offers services and solutions for project management, resource planning, collaboration, and project accounting. Mavenlink combines the robust functionality of a Professional Services Automation solution with intuitive...Read more
Viewpath is a cloud-based project management solution that allows teams to view team availability, assign tasks and collaborate with teams in real time. With everything hosted in the cloud, the platform can be utilized by globa...Read more
WorkOtter is a SaaS project, resource, and portfolio management solution built for teams of 50-200 who demand a simple, sensible, and supportable PPM alternative. Touting over 50 gorgeous, configurable, and full animated dashbo...Read more
inMotion ignite is a creative project management software built specifically for the needs of creative and marketing teams. Combining the most powerful elements of task and workflow management with the collaborative features of...Read more
Polarion is a browser-based application lifecycle management (ALM) solution that allows businesses to manage all facets of the product development lifecycle. Designed for complex development environments, Polarion ALM utilizes ...Read more
SprintGround is a cloud-based project management solution designed for small and midsize businesses. The product caters to both IT companies as well as in-house IT teams. It allows users to organize their work, collaborate with...Read more
Popular Product Management Software Comparisons
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Buyers Guide
Last Updated: February 22, 2021Digitalization is causing a major disruption in the project management industry, prompting organizations to shift from a project model to a product model in order to more effectively manage technology investments.
Gartner predicts businesses that embrace this change now will outperform their competition in both customer satisfaction and business results. (Source: "Mastering the Role of Products in the Digital Era." Full report available to Gartner clients.)
We've created this guide to help you better understand all that product management encompasses and how it relates to the current project management marketplace.
Whether you're just starting to shift from a project to a product model, or you're a seasoned product manager looking to upgrade your current system, this guide can help you make a more informed purchase decision.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Product Management Software?
Product Management vs. Project Management
Common Capabilities of Product Management Software
Market Trends to Understand
What Is Product Management Software?
Product management encompasses the planning, production, marketing and managing of products over their life cycle, i.e., introduction, growth, maturity and decline. It brings together business strategy, customer needs/wants and technology investments.
Products can be tangible, i.e., physical goods, or they can be more intangible, such as software applications or a service you offer.
Gartner's Definition of a Product in the Digital Era
(Source: "Mastering the Role of Products in the Digital Era." Full report available to Gartner clients.)
Within the realm of IT and project management, product portfolio management refers to an organizational approach to managing technology investments (i.e., software and applications), both internally developed or purchased.
It involves grouping applications into product suites that align with, and deliver the capabilities required by, each business area. The goal is to deliver continuous value from software and applications over their life cycle, rather than a single delivery of value all at once at the close of the project.
Product management software provides support for these ventures, allowing businesses to more effectively:
- Align their portfolio with the business strategy
- Balance demand with resource capacity
- Analyze the risk versus reward for various opportunities
- Manage product initiatives from concept to closeout
Product Management vs. Project Management
These disciplines are closely related, but there are some key differences:
Product management involves developing and communicating a product strategy (that aligns with business goals). Product managers put together a product vision, outline high-level requirements, prioritize initiatives in the portfolio and drive the development of products in the product line.
Strategic planning in Aha!
Project management involves executing the strategy through individual initiatives. Each project initiative is designed to deliver specific requirements. Project managers govern those initiatives, coordinate resources, oversee schedules and manage all the details of the project from kickoff to closeout.
Project dashboard in LiquidPlanner
Common Features of Product Management Software
Product management software can range quite significantly in size and function, with some specializing in a single phase of the product life cycle and others offering an integrated suite of tools to govern multiple phases.
Expect to see some or all of the following capabilities as you evaluate the various product management systems on the market:
| Collaboration | Increase transparency into your product strategy and vision. Enable users to communicate and collaborate in a centralized workspace, share ideas and work together to accomplish goals. |
| Idea management | Create a forum where users can submit and discuss product ideas and build out a business case. Figure out what to work on next by grooming your product backlog based on impact versus effort. |
| Content management | Upload and store files such as product requirements, market research and competitor analyses. Set permissions and share files with approved users. This may be called a "research repository." |
| Product portfolio management | Build a product portfolio based on business strategy and current, near term and future goals. Design product lines and manage opportunities across the business. Communicate your product vision, value proposition, go-to-market plans and more. |
| Product research | Conduct research on users, build personas, test various designs for the best user experience. |
| Product roadmapping | Prioritize initiatives based on customer analysis and feedback. Break product requirements into features and put them on the roadmap according to priority. Roadmap options will vary across tools, i.e., team roadmaps, product roadmaps, portfolio roadmaps, release roadmaps. Discuss needs with vendors to ensure the product capabilities match your business requirements. |
| Application management | Support software and application products over their life cycles: Plan/gather requirements, put into design specification plan, develop/build it, test it, deploy application and maintain/support it. |
| Reporting and analytics | Organize data, analyze it, spot trends and identify patterns. Collate data from various sources on dashboards and build out custom reports or use an out-of-the box template. |
| Feedback management | Gather customer feedback and incorporate it into product decisions. Link feedback to product ideas and requirements on your roadmap. |
Market Trends To Understand
The shift from project to product portfolio management is happening faster than you might think. We surveyed managers and application leaders to find out how their organizations currently manage technology investments.
While 36 percent still manage all investments as IT projects, it's telling that 64 percent have a product component in their portfolio in some capacity.
This reflects a major change in how organizations are seeking to deliver value through capabilities, from strictly project-based to product-oriented portfolios.
Organizational Approach to Managing Technology Investments
![Organizational Approach to Managing Technology Investments [chart]](https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/wp-content/uploads/1676202-product_management.png)
Gartner estimates that by 2020, three-quarters of digital business leaders will have pivoted from project to product portfolio management. (Full report available to Gartner clients.)
If you're part of the 36 percent who have yet to make the transition, here's how to get started:
- Direct your project management office (PMO) to include both a product and a project component in your portfolio moving forward.
- Empower existing product managers to lead your transition.
- Set up cross-functional teams (e.g., executives, product managers and their counterparts in IT and operations) to align your product portfolio and resources with your business strategy.
- Embrace business agility, agile development methods and the DevOps movement (if you haven't already).