Recently, we published The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q2 2025, showcasing how collaborative work management (CWM) platforms are rapidly evolving to meet the needs of modern enterprises. Over the past couple of months, we researched the top CWM vendors in the market to gain a better understanding of current vendor offerings and identify the best product fit for our clients.
This Forrester Wave evaluated 11 vendors: Adobe, Airtable, Asana, Atlassian, ClickUp, monday.com, Quickbase, ServiceNow, Smartsheet, Wrike, and Zoho. Each vendor was evaluated on three inputs: a questionnaire for the vendors to complete, executive strategy briefings and demos, and interviews of up to three reference customers. The Wave included scores for 15 current-offering criteria and eight strategy criteria. Read the full report here.
Forrester defines collaboration work management (CWM) tools as:
Software tools that support the confluence of project and process work by allowing users to create personal and team workspaces; invite other users, internal and external to the organization, to collaborate on digital artifacts; identify workload requirements and capacity; and allocate activities to other users to deliver on work items and then track progress.
What Should You Look For?
With expanded functionality and the continued rise of AI-driven capabilities, these tools are no longer just about project or task planning — they empower users to act, drive outcomes, and perform work more proactively. These changes are leading to numerous impacts. Organizations are starting to implement these tools as a system of record for work. As a result, clients should consider these key insights when making a purchase decision:
Integration is crucial. The CWM market continues its fast-paced growth with expanded capabilities. It is essential to consider not only the core capabilities of the platform but also how well it integrates with the rest of your tech ecosystem. Look beyond surface-level integrations and assess the depth, flexibility, and scalability of each vendor’s ability to support your integration needs.
AI depends on data quality. AI can be a powerful accelerator for productivity, but its value is only as strong as the data it relies on. Before you leverage AI, you must first understand the current state of your data. Clean, well-structured, and accessible data is essential for generating reliable outputs and building trust in AI-driven recommendations.
Project portfolio management is still essential. CWM solutions are flexible and allow for proactive work, but they are not yet full replacements for traditional PPM systems. Portfolio management, especially for organizations that are scaling enterprise planning, requires more robust data models, governance, and scalability — capabilities that are still maturing in many CWM platforms.
For a deeper look into the market, Forrester clients can read the full report, The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q2 2025. Check out the results for all 11 vendors, including the specific criteria that differentiated them and why.
If you have any questions about the changes happening in the collaborative work management market, book an inquiry or guidance session with me.
This blog was written with Melissa Chhay, senior research associate.
