Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q2 2025

How does Forrester define the Collaborative Work Management Tools market in 2025?

The collaborative work management (CWM) market continues fast-paced growth across organizations of all industries as users continuously find new use cases to help them become more productive. With expanded usage and continued introduction of new AI capabilities, clients are quickly surfacing insights that enable them to make better decisions and automate activities that used to be highly manual and time consuming. Unencumbered by rigid methodologies or content that forced project management oversight where it wasn't necessary, users can now actually execute rather than just identify activities. CWM is evolving toward enterprise work management but is not yet a replacement for project portfolio management (PPM).

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q2 2025 in 2025

How did the Collaborative Work Management Tools market evolve in 2025?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the Collaborative Work Management Tools space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates 11 collaborative work management (CWM) tool providers across current offering capabilities, strategy, and customer feedback. The evaluation covers core CWM functionalities including administration, usability, enterprise work management, collaboration, workflow design, AI capabilities, portfolio management, financial management, resource management, performance analysis, BI analytics and reporting, industry-specific support, scalability, integration, and security. It also assesses vendor strategy elements like vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, pricing, community, and supporting services.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: CWM tool customers should use this evaluation to inform purchase decisions with key considerations: understanding that best value comes with integration capabilities; recognizing the need to understand data quality for AI capabilities; and knowing that CWM is not yet a replacement for PPM tools. Organizations should assess their integration needs, data quality, and scalability requirements against vendor capabilities. Buyers should use the interactive provider comparison experience to adapt findings based on their specific priorities and use cases.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Vendors must natively provide all core CWM functions including: administration and configuration, usability and customer experience, enterprise work management, collaboration, workflow design and support, AI capabilities, portfolio management, financial management, resource management, performance analysis, BI analysis and reporting, industry-specific support, scalability, integration capabilities, and security features. Additionally, vendors must have a demonstrated track record supporting medium-size to large enterprises.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Annual revenue from CWM tools below $150 million in the past four quarters
  • Lack of comprehensive native CWM capabilities requiring significant third-party integrations
  • No demonstrated track record supporting medium-size to large enterprises
  • Insufficient mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients
  • Limited mentions in client inquiries, advisories, or consulting engagements
  • Not recognized as a competitor by other vendors in the market
  • Declined to participate or contributed only partially to the evaluation
  • Did not meet the materials submission deadline of March 14, 2025

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • The best value comes with integration - understand your integration needs and the vendor's ability to support them as usage expands across the organization
  • You must understand the state of your data - know the quality of data you want to leverage to get reliable AI responses and build trust in reporting
  • CWM is not a replacement for project portfolio management (PPM) yet - don't take PPM-like features at face value and ensure the vendor can support your scalability requirements
  • Evaluate whether you need enterprise planning capabilities or team-level collaboration
  • Consider your organization's maturity level and readiness for implementation complexity
  • Assess your need for strategic portfolio, financial, and resource management capabilities
  • Determine if you require industry-specific templates and workflows
  • Evaluate vendor support for both top-down alignment and bottom-up execution

Q: How has the Collaborative Work Management Tools market evolved in 2025?

A:

  • Fast-paced market growth across organizations of all industries
  • Users continuously finding new use cases to improve productivity
  • Expanded usage driving more complex integration requirements
  • Continued introduction of new AI capabilities including bots and natural language processing
  • Shift from free trials/downloads to enterprise deals and expanded implementations
  • Evolution of portfolio management capabilities requiring product rearchitecture
  • Vendor investments in agentic AI to optimize and automate work
  • Growing demand for scalability and complex data requirements
  • Transition from rigid project management methodologies to flexible execution-focused tools
  • Integration becoming critical as usage expands across organizations

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Strength of Offering (vertical axis) evaluates current product capabilities across 15 criteria including administration, usability, enterprise features, collaboration, workflow design, AI capabilities, portfolio/financial/resource management, analytics, scalability, integration, and security. Strength of Strategy (horizontal axis) assesses forward-looking elements across 8 criteria including vision, innovation, product roadmap, partner ecosystem, market adoption, pricing models, community engagement, and professional services support.

Reference

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