Enterprise Project Portfolio Management: Benefits, Process, and Tools

Enterprise project portfolio management (EPPM) takes dedication to implement. The biggest hurdles stem from executive alignment, standardized data, team resistance to change, disconnected systems, and bureaucracy.

Here’s a look at the obstacles, including tips to handle them:

• Getting Consensus on a Standardized Approach: EPPM requires agreement on how you will plan, track, and report work across business units. Achieving that consensus can be especially challenging in matrixed organizations.
  
  
  
  “The biggest challenge is that a successful EPPM approach requires consensus throughout the organization on how work will be managed — from individual task management up to portfolio-level reporting,” says Lulu Richter, Senior Technical Project Manager at Smartsheet. “In enterprise organizations, large workforces and often complex reporting structures make finding a single, consistent management approach for all use cases exceptionally challenging.”
  
  Getting consensus typically requires well-defined objectives, input from all departments, and a visible commitment to a unified EPPM approach.
   
• Ensuring the EPMO Maintains Clear Authority: The enterprise project management office requires clear authority from executive leadership to enforce portfolio-level decisions and avoid departmental siloes.
  
  
  
  “The hardest part of implementing or supporting EPPM is not the software or the processes; it is consistently enforcing portfolio-level governance,” says Mark Friend, Director at Classroom365 and former Global VPN Project Manager at the British Council.
  
  “Moving from departmental PPM, every unit, department, or silo believes its own projects are the most important concern,” he says. “The challenge we had here was easily overcome by giving the EPMO direct, clear authority from the very top of executive leadership.”
   
• Managing Organizational Change: Change management continues to test large organizations. Frequent reprioritization, communication shortfalls, and insufficient visibility can cause problems even for mature portfolios.
  
  According to the 2025 Project and Portfolio Management Priorities Report by Smartsheet, 92 percent of professionals said adapting to organizational change is difficult, and 61 percent of employees at large enterprises agreed that their company did a poor job of adapting to change. To overcome that, most complex organizations need strong EPPM with a change management plan.
  
  “The hardest part of implementing EPPM is overcoming resistance to change,” Senapathy says. “Many teams are protective of their own data and hesitant to lose control.” However, he says, “building understanding starts with transparency. When people see how shared visibility benefits everyone, trust starts to grow. Showing leaders how fragmented systems waste effort often opens their eyes to the potential of EPPM. Once that happens, adoption becomes easier because they support the shift.”
   
• Inconsistent Data Across Portfolios: Portfolios often track work differently — by cost centers, time periods, or maturity level — making consolidation difficult. Two-thirds of the PPM professionals surveyed in the Project and Portfolio Management report said they lack data visibility to make smart pivots; disconnected tools and systems create siloed reports and undermine the single source of truth essential for EPPM. Standardized data can help ensure enterprise reporting accuracy and efficient resource management. This might include investing early in integration architecture and automation.   
   
• Resistance to Centralized Governance: Shifting control from local portfolio leaders to an enterprise PMO can feel bureaucratic. Managers may perceive new approval gates as red tape.
  
  To lessen that resistance, executives should involve business unit leaders early, show how standards protect resources, and give teams input into the governance model. 
   
• Resource Overload on Shared Teams: When multiple portfolios draw on the same departments or specialists, competing demand can lead to delays or burnout. Enterprise-level capacity planning creates steadier, more predictable workloads for teams. 
   
• Bureaucracy: EPPM can lead to time-wasting bureaucracy and rigidity if organizations don’t methodically focus on being efficient.
  
  
  
  Alan Zucker, a PPM consultant and coach with more than 25 years of experience, recalls an example of a company he worked with that had an enterprise portfolio management organization. The PPM team had 50-75 people, including a senior vice president, a couple of VPs, and several directors. “They implemented and customized an enterprise tool. When a member of the PPM team attended an industry conference, they watched a vendor demo and realized they balled up the tool’s implementation,” Zucker says. “The intention was to create oversight and standardization … But things just became bureaucratic.”
• Loss of Momentum: Without consistent portfolio reviews and visible action arising from insights after rollout, EPPM can lose engagement and momentum. Keeping leaders accountable for data-driven decision-making ensures the proper use of EPPM.