Increasingly, PPM leaders are recognizing that the project and work management tools in use at their organizations are no longer fit for purpose.
In many cases, these tools were implemented gradually in response to discrete needs. Now, different parts of the organization are reliant on different tools – and none of them are appropriate to support modern, adaptive work practices.
At the same time, many project teams have become utterly dependent on a mishmash of email, spreadsheets, documents, and manual time reporting technologies. Not only does this make accurate reporting close-to-impossible, it’s also completely unscalable.
PPM and other business leaders are actively looking for ways to consolidate their technology profile while supporting a host of new business needs. So, how should they proceed?
That’s where the Gartner report, 2020 Market Guide for Adaptive Project Management and Reporting, comes in.
What is Adaptive Project Management and Reporting?
The PPM technology market includes two main solution areas: strategic portfolio management (which is the focus of a separate Market Guide), and adaptive project management (PM) and reporting.
As the name suggests, adaptive PM and reporting encompasses two essential functions:
- Automation of project and other work and the provision of tools for project teams, and;
- Comprehensive reporting of project and work status and progress, including real-time dashboards.
In practice, these tools typically include functionality that supports:
- Project and work planning and management
- Process automation
- Work prioritization
- Resourcing and planning
- Progress reporting
- Inventory reporting
Some tools – including Clarizen – also offer functionality that falls under strategic portfolio management.
The Importance of Adaptive Technology
The defining characteristic of adaptive project management technologies is their flexibility. Rather than forcing project teams to adopt specific working practices – as most legacy PPM systems did – adaptive project management and reporting solutions enable project managers and other business users to define the way they want to work based on their specific needs. This includes the ability to go beyond the use of traditional and alternative work and project execution methods to support continuous delivery. As outlined by Gartner in their report, teams operating in these environments need to drive high work productivity and enhance data sharing, collaboration, and communication to help them:
- Reduce overall project and work durations
- Promote continuous customer responsiveness and satisfaction
- Adapt to changing customer needs
- Base any execution approaches on the time-to-value perceptions of their customers
Where is Adaptive PM and Reporting Needed?
One reason why many organizations find themselves supporting a plethora of disparate project and work management systems is that the need for these technologies has grown dramatically over time. Where once it was the exclusive domain of the PMO, many different business teams now have a pressing need for work management solutions.
Common examples include:
- IT project and work management
- Agile development
- Marketing
- Product development
- Outsourced IT services or system integration
- Client-facing professional services
However, from a resource perspective, allowing each individual area of the business to procure and maintain its own system is clearly unsustainable. Instead, PPM and business leaders must evaluate the adaptive PM and reporting solutions available on the market, and compare them to what is already in place.
In many cases, organizations can replace several existing tools with a single modern solution. Not only does this result in substantial cost savings, it also ensures optimal functionality and transparency across the organization.
What Solutions are Available?
In the 2020 Market Guide, technology vendors in the adaptive PM and reporting market are grouped into these four categories:
- Existing pure-play PPM providers, some of which are expanding their solutions to support adaptive PM and reporting use cases.
- Collaborative work management (CWM) providers, which allow users to define and plan different types of projects and work, and manage them to completion.
- Enterprise agile planning (EAP) providers, which primarily focus on traditional Application Development Lifecycle Management (ADLM) feature sets, and may not support truly adaptive PM.
- Technology platform providers from other markets, such as ERP, ITSM, and CRM providers that are building some adaptive project management capabilities into their platforms.
With so many options available, which is right for your organization?
Find Out What Gartner Thinks
The Gartner 2020 Market Guide provides clear recommendations on how PPM and other business leaders can make the ideal technology choice for their organization.
The Market Guide explains how you can:
- Define your organization’s requirements
- Identify existing tools in use across the organization
- Assess gaps in functionality
- Choose between the four main technology categories
- Select potential candidate solutions
The report also details which category adaptive project management and reporting vendors are most identified with.
To download your complimentary version of the full report, click here.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
