Magic　Quadrant　for　IT　Project　and　Portfolio　Management--项目管理与Project最佳实践

Vendor movement has been characterized by partnering, some new sales emphasis beyond North America, and improved packaging and delivery options (for example, software as a service [SaaS]), as well as new product releases. Through 2007, PPM product development generally was focused more on integration than on innovation. Participants were reshuffled, with market exits and new entrants, even as styles of project management evolved.

The rise of midmarket demand — with emerging and established vendors poised to match it — presents a new challenge for participants in the PPM space. PPM prospects small and large (based on the number of potential PPM end users) increasingly are considering SaaS/on demand as an alternative option for deploying PPM technologies, which will lead to more market consolidation and more-competitive pricing. Adverse economic conditions in some regions of the world will continue to drive competitive PPM market pricing and perhaps derail some PPM initiatives because of IT budget cuts and tighter cost controls.

Nonetheless, seasoned PPM practitioners are making additional investments in their PPM implementations. Despite certain known limitations in their choice of PPM technologies, PPM practitioners are driving the continued adoption of PPM processes into their organizations to begin to value their applications and IT services on the basis of cost. This trend signals the progress being made by a small percentage of PPM customers toward practices in application portfolio management (APM). It also prepares the organization for the ability to modernize IT (see "Adopt PPM to Support IT Modernization"). In the future, PPM applications targeting the IT organization often will link to the application life cycle, with tool features or interfaces driving project schedules from requirements and supporting software quality management in ways beyond the quality gates in more-traditional project schedules, such as through links to test management tools or by adding contemporary collaborative features supporting agile development (some leveraging Microsoft Office SharePoint Servers, others perhaps resembling such innovators as Central Desktop, Huddle.net and Planzone).

PPM solutions, as we have observed them, support processes that integrate knowledge about costs, schedules and HR for investment prioritization and to ensure the effective release of new deliverables, as well as to control investment in ongoing operations.

This view of the portfolio management dimension goes beyond integrating information from the various areas of a single project. It includes a view of alternative investment scenarios, alignment of strategic programs, support for business case creation and more. We take this expansive view of "integration management," looking across the project portfolio over time and taking into consideration nonproject (for example, application support) work where it also affects the availability of project resources. Dashboard tools provide business intelligence and an integrated view of program and project status, application portfolios, resource capacity and service levels. Portfolio data gathered from these segments better enables project and resource prioritization.

In addition to portfolio (aka integration) management, we look for PPM solutions to address most foundational support areas described in the "Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide" from the Project Management Institute. The key is a portfolio approach to the areas of time, resource and cost management. Time management features help build simple timelines (for example, Gantt charts) or more-complex schedules for programs, projects, activities and task assignments. Resource management enables staff allocation via a resource repository. Via integration with project timelines, it supports resource loading and leveling (natively or via third-party tool integration). Cost management features enable the tracking of labor hours and other costs, enabling (at the high end) earned value management and the chargeback or billing of project expenses.

Of growing interest is tool support for structured risk management, including a risk dashboard (factoring in risk values beyond schedule risk). Of the other areas, many providers offer features supporting communication management (for example, via issue tracking, approval workflows, discussions and document handling). Some providers have included explicit features for scope management (beyond simply managing scope in the schedule), and others have experimented with procurement management (for example, for skills sourcing and to collaborate with contractors). Still others address quality management (for example, via methodology templates supporting such approaches as Capability Maturity Model Integrated and Six Sigma with gate reviews, process metrics and more).

Several factors determine a vendor's inclusion in the Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management, depending on how well a solution and its provider meet the criteria. We would recommend any provider in the Magic Quadrant — including niche players — in certain circumstances, depending on the user's requirements and situation.

Although interest in "enterprise" PPM (beyond IT) is growing, a technology provider seeking to address the needs of most of Gartner's client base should come to market with at least a secondary focus on the IT organization (although most of the vendor's sales may be in another segment, such as PPM for professional services). The provider should have gained new customers during the past 12 months. Vendors are considered for inclusion partly on the basis of annual PPM revenue exceeding $10 million (or strong investor backing). They should have a market presence of at least three years. Vendor management should show deep software experience, business education and integrity.

Gartner monitors the market activities of many PPM providers, some established, some new, that may address some market needs (including outside the IT industry) effectively but do not yet meet enough of Gartner's criteria for inclusion in the IT PPM Magic Quadrant. These include Agresso, Automation Centre, BrightWork, Dekker, Deltek, Genius Inside, GenSight, InventX, MaestroTec, Onepoint Software, Portfolio DecisionWare, ProjectInvision International, Project.net, Projility, Projity, Skire and others. Many of these are differentiated, with useful innovations, or address specific market segments. Clients should submit inquiries to Gartner when evaluating market alternatives, especially for non-IT segments.

EPK Group: Since 2003, EPK has been delivering add-ons to Microsoft Office Project Server, beginning with the EPK-Time time sheet and EPK-Portfolio initiative alignment tools. EPK-Suite includes these tools and provides sufficient resource and capacity planning, a browser-based planning capability and integration with and enhancements to the Microsoft Project scheduling tool, to compare with other PPM solutions leveraging this popular scheduler.

IBM: IBM indicates that it will continue to meet customer commitments. However, new sales and marketing efforts promoting the Rational Portfolio Manager (RPM) tool have ramped off while IBM builds a next-generation PPM solution on the Jazz technology platform leveraging Rational Team Concert (announced in June 2007 with release expected in June 2008). In part, IBM's experience that RPM was less a packaged application than an opportunity to sell consultative services led the company to pursue this next-generation strategy. The solution, as it evolves, will encompass various IBM tools and services, including Rational Method Composer, and some features it says it is evolving from RPM, as well as an enterprise metrics and reporting offering and collaborative capabilities sometime in 2009. Although IBM intends to re-enter the PPM market with this new solution, which will be focused on flexibility and an architecture designed for large or geographically distributed organizations, the complete solution likely will not be available for commercial use for at least the next 12 to 18 months.
Borland: As Borland seeks to reverse stagnant sales across product lines, it has chosen to focus on the application life cycle management (ALM) market and is repurposing Tempo as a project-tracking tool within a new management suite.

These categories show the vendors' ability to execute (see Note 1).

These categories show the vendors' completeness of vision.

IT PPM "leaders" have a record of meeting IT needs by providing analytic frameworks for application and project portfolios with tools that can track such nonproject IT demands as minor software change requests so that managers can assess their cumulative impact on resource supply. Product depth in such core areas as advanced scheduling, resources and cost management distinguishes most leaders, as well as portfolio analysis features (for investment prioritization). Leaders increasingly are offering a measure of program (vs. project) management, via program views, supported by program structures, workflows, templates and more for program management as such.

Most leaders offer a range of deployment options (for example, pilots, staged implementations and SaaS) to address customers' varying needs at different levels of PPM capability maturity. Leaders' vision of the IT PPM market often extends to communication and quality management, with features aimed at improving team performance (for example, via collaborative features and methodology support).

Leaders also tend to have not only capable system integration partners, but some core direct PPM service offerings, going beyond implementation and support to include process and organizational consulting. To successfully implement more-capable PPM processes takes an organizational change competency that most organizations don't know they need or admit they can't consistently perform.

PPM providers scoring high on vision focus on culture as the keystone of any PPM implementation. Through their professional services (and service partners), they advise customers that passive "bulletin board" announcements of the (proposed) change will fail in the long term — as will brute force and coercive change efforts.

Before beginning tool implementation, leaders ensure that the scope and nature of process change fits the culture, and that it is being defined and communicated in a positive persuasive manner, emphasizing the value to the business of the change and the direct benefits to those affected (for example, visibility into resource conflicts and overallocations). They then train customers to track against key metrics — which are tied to the business value and direct benefits of PPM — to assess the success or failure of the implementation, and encourage them to tie incentives (hard and soft) to metrics to drive behavioral changes (see "Unconscious Incompetence: An Application Organization's Primary Approach to Organizational Change").

Leaders share many attributes with technology providers we've rated as "visionaries" and "challengers" but are differentiated by comparatively high ratings in many areas, not just a couple. Leaders' product development often drives toward a more holistic offering — for example, providing a means of monitoring processes and decisions from IT services management (ITSM) and ALM tools. Consistency between a provider's stated strategy and product direction and its execution — that is, integrity — is important, along with demonstrated vision, enabling the vendor to address emerging and often vaguely defined market requirements.

Challengers resemble leaders in many ways, such as product depth combined with enough experienced technical sales support to effectively reach the market. Often, however, the product may emphasize one core area, such as project cost management, without all-round strength across most IT PPM functional areas. In general, challengers are consistently profitable, with a steady foundation of maintenance revenue, a growing installed base and an experienced international sales force with thorough training in the PPM solution. Significant international operations help sustain an ability to execute, in part by insulating providers from shifts in local market and economic conditions.

Visionaries may differ from leaders in product depth or revenue strength, or they may lack the installed base and sales force of a challenger, but they often share — or originally innovated — features and traits of the leaders (for example, methodology support and APM frameworks). Like the leaders, visionaries seek to enable PPM broadly as a business process, with IT processes and skill sets being only one area addressed. Some visionaries have been more experimental with business models, and they may approach various markets more broadly, with variable packaging and pricing (for example, SaaS and phased implementation packages). Completeness of Vision ratings can reflect innovative approaches in areas such as resource performance management, pipeline analysis and preconfigured (but tailorable) portals for a variety of enterprise roles.

Like challengers, niche players may emphasize a specific aspect, such as cost management, vs. all-around PPM functionality, or they may have strengths in a specific region. Again, depending on the user's needs, any provider included in the Magic Quadrant could be recommended. Like visionaries, niche players may differ from leaders in revenue strength or installed base; some may have experienced flat sales or restructuring, or they may have been inaccurate in responding to changes in the market or technology. They may have a less experienced senior management team, or may depend on Web or inside sales to control costs and compete on price, whereas PPM typically takes an enterprise sales force that is used to high-level sales and longer sales cycles.

@Task provides PPM for IT functionality, including a resource capacity planner, at a more cost-effective price point than other PPM vendors in this space.
Customers can more directly influence the product development road map of this small, growth vendor (which is profitable, with more than 100 employees).
@Task supports alternatives to Microsoft Windows-based technologies, such as Mac OS X, Linux and Firefox. @Task also supports iPhone.

@Task provides limited portfolio management and analysis features, and the system does not provide a native portfolio management methodology.
@Task offers Web services APIs and an event framework for ITSM and ALM support but does not provide other ITSM and ALM integration features out of the box.
Customers using automatic routing of issues and other issue management features cite this as an area they would like @Task to improve.

Resource visibility, including capacity and use, are particular strengths of the Atlantic Global offering.
Customers report support and implementation services as strong points of Atlantic Global.
Atlantic Global offers PPM at a competitive price point, as compared with other PPM vendors.

Atlantic Global's portfolio management and analysis capabilities require a heavier R&D investment, if the vendor wishes to expand its IT PPM market size.
Atlantic Global's PPM system provides little or no support for the management of ITSM and ALM activities as part of IT work management.
Atlantic Global is not in a favorable position to support North American PPM markets.

Augeo5 provides a configurable, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition-based PPM system with a resource-driven planning optimization engine at its core.
Augeo's product teams have expertise in the European PPM market and experience with complex IT departments and phased implementations.
Augeo's installed base has been a steady source of license and maintenance revenue.

The development of Planzone, Augeo's collaborative project environment, will draw R&D resources away from the legacy product. Currently in beta, Planzone will provide a multilingual, SaaS PPM platform for the midmarket.
Augeo lacks an ITSM and ALM product and the partnering vision to support comprehensive IT planning and control (ITPC).
Augeo remains poorly positioned to penetrate North America, although Planzone's SaaS approach may take it further afield.

Customers cite multiproject management, structured work management and capacity-planning features as strong points of the Cardinis PPM system.
Customers report that Cardinis' implementation and support services are satisfactory and that these include methodologies and formal training services.
Customers report that the Cardinis Suite is customizable and provides Web services, supporting connections to Oracle Product Lifecycle Management, E-Business Suite Human Resources Management and Financials systems, as well as import/export of Microsoft Office Project.

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