As most Project Management Offices (PMOs) don’t fail because of a lack of information but a lack of connected information, the solution is obvious: to integrate all those disconnected project management layers into the single tool that takes most of the operational work. Solving specific PMO pains which, in this blog case you'll learn, applied to Jira how to add project portfolio, finances, team capacity, and reporting and BI layers.
The usual scenario in companies with a misaligned project delivery process usually lies because the project portfolio definitions live in one place, budgets, costs projections in another, team capacity plans somewhere else, and reporting becomes each owner's mini-project on an spreadhseet. And every time leadership asks: “Where are we and what can we expect?,” each teams consults their "mini-projects" resulting in these disconnected workspaces, spending energy reconciling versions instead of managing a common source of truth. That’s one of the usual nightmares for disconnected Project Management Offices.
That fragmentation shows up fast by delays, rework, inconsistent reporting, and decisions made with partial context because the “real” data is always getting behind, as the real work happens in one place: Jira.
The PMO Collection for Jira is an operating layer for projects carefully placed within the Atlassian app (Jira), adaptable to each company, to their needs and their scaling priorities. It comes with a predefined set of curated set of Atlassian Marketplace apps: Projectrak, Budgety, Capacity, and Exporter. However, that might change, according to the PMO maturity, and their way of excecuting projects.
Instead of bringing more tools to the equation, it's more productive to centralize the Jira portfolio governance, financial control, capacity planning, and external reporting (or data management), into the same environment where execution already happens to a main control system: Jira. This results as a shared project data layer that helps PMOs adapt their governance model to how the organization actually runs projects, without forcing teams to spend time (and money = productivity) learning about another tool.
Learn more about the PMO Collection for Jira >>
To support that productivity point of view, as there’s no a universal Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) benchmark in the context of switching software tools, however it's a great measure for productivity; most organizations, estimate FTE by summing training time plus time-to-proficiency/productivity, and converting those hours to FTE. Industry benchmarks like ATD’s learning-hours-per-employee and Forrester TEI models for digital adoption can help anchor those assumptions.
Each of these predefined Atlassian Marketplace apps covers a specific PMO control area such as portfolio, finance, resourcing, and reporting bringing real value, sharing the same Jira context.
That means less time aligning fields and status updates across tools, and more time investing time on indicators that are already tied to Jira work items, dates, and owners. E.g.:
Standardizing project portfolio, budgets, capacity, and third-party reporting in Jira is critical, and simple.
Centralizing and standardizing your PMO layer where delivery already happens it's matter of getting together a set of project management focused solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace to turn scattered inputs into one consistent operating model, as the following shows more explicitly. And if you're not aware about where are you standing, no worries, there's also a solution for you:
Projectrak for Jira standardizes project properties so every initiative follows the same language: status, dates, owners, classification, and the fields your project governance needs. It organizes the portfolio through different views so PMOs and leaders can see what matters without opening projects one by one. It also supports portfolio visibility and project health indicators to keep oversight tied to delivery reality.
For example: A PMO lead reviews a program view on Monday, spots three projects marked “At Risk,” and requests corrective actions before the steering committee. It’s a win!
Budgety for Jira centralizes project budgets and costs, allowing teams to input and classify costs (CAPEX/OPEX, direct/indirect, and custom categories), forecast expected spend, and compare plan vs. actual supporting variance visibility so finance and PMO leaders can act aligned and before spend drifts, turning budget governance into an operational habit instead of an end-of-month surprise.
For example, the finance team checks on a project’s plan vs. actual mid-quarter, sees variance building, and agrees with the PMO on scope adjustments before the next phase starts.
Capacity for Jira, brings team resourcing decisions to Jira by enabling workload planning and allocation based on actual team availability. It supports fair work distribution and helps prevent overload by making utilization visible across a time range and selected people and teams. It also enables practical variance checks between planned capacity and what’s actually been logged.
For example, imagine that a delivery manager sees two engineers over-allocated for the next two weeks and shifts lower-priority work to an underutilized teammate while keeping milestones intact.
Exporter for Jira externalizes Jira project data (and its metadata) to formats (Excel, CSV) and destinations that executives, auditors, and BI teams can use on a schedule. It supports third-party reporting for deeper analysis and reduces the manual effort of pulling evidence for audits and compliance. Reporting becomes repeatable and reliable because it’s produced from the same Jira source instead of ad-hoc extracts.
Learn how monthly reports enhances the PMO visibility >>
As an example of this use, a PMO schedules a monthly export to Power BI for leadership reporting and keeps quarterly audit evidence available without a last-minute scramble.
The PMO Collection for Jira work together because each component control different project management areas, and it stays anchored to Jira for execution:
The PMO Collection for Jira articulates collaboration around projects using Jira as an operational base.
Projectrak defines and standardizes the portfolio layer (what a “project” means, how it’s governed, how it’s viewed, and even its behavior). Budgety attaches financial governance to that same project reality (forecast, actuals, variance). Capacity connects resourcing decisions to the work and time horizon (who can do what, when). Exporter extends visibility beyond Jira when the audience or compliance requirements demand it (BI, audits, non-licensed stakeholders).
This is how “one source of truth” becomes operational allowing to the PMO not just storing information, but allowing to govern project decisions on top of a live Jira context.
It’s important to note that not every organization needs the same PMO depth on day one, and forcing a heavy model too early usually backfires, the same on the other way. The PMO Collection comes supported by the PMO Solution that supports different maturity levels:
Lightweight / Starter PMO: Which allows to start with a fast structure and visibility, standardizing project data, setting basic budgets, planning capacity, and producing consistent reporting. Ideal when teams need immediate governance without complexity.
Intermediate PMO: It adds a broader Atlassian and Marketplace capabilities as needs grow (resource management depth, richer financial controls, expanded reporting), while keeping governance anchored in Jira.
Enterprise-grade PMO: Build a tailored operating model across portfolios and teams with deeper integrations and advanced reporting requirements but still grounded in Jira as the execution system, depending on the needs.
Learn more about PMO Solutions available for you >>
As it’s obvious to note, the PMO leaders, program managers, project managers, financial managers, delivery managers, and system administrators are the most benefitted on counting with such solution in place because it gives each role a reliable management layer inside Jira.
If your PMO decisions are still happening outside Jira while delivery happens inside it, the PMO Collection for Jira is the step forward to connected project governance within the Atlassian app. Bring portfolio visibility, financial control, capacity planning, and audit-ready reporting into one Jira-native layer, then scale the operating model as your maturity grows.
The main focus is to keep team organization moving faster beyond approvals, course-corrections, and executive updates that in this case are based on a shared picture, not competing versions. Get a predictable delivery experiencem with fewer delays caused by internal confusion, clearer expectations, earlier risk handling, and outcomes that match what was promised because the teams running the work and the teams governing it are finally looking at the same truth.