Gartner defines the market for enterprise architecture (EA) tools as tools that allow users to capture interrelationships and interdependencies within and across an organization’s ecosystem of applications, capabilities, processes, operating models, roles, information and technologies. EA tools provide a central repository to capture data and metadata about artifacts that describe the enterprise. Users build models and viewpoints to represent the relationships between these artifacts, helping describe and shape the future of the enterprise. EA tools enable analysis of trends, disruptions, and other drivers of enterprise change to deliver realistic roadmaps and explore potential scenarios. EA tools provide a means to model the IT and business aspects of the enterprise, in support of business outcome delivery. Doing so requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders across the organization, with each playing a different role at a different time. The models and methods used by the stakeholders will vary depending on their role, and must be integrated and connected to other models to be useful.
Enterprise business process analysis (EBPA) tools enable business and process modeling, manage process repositories and support analysis aimed at transforming and improving business performance. These tools emphasize cross-viewpoint (strategy, analysis, architecture, automation) and cross-functional analysis guiding strategic and operational decisions.
Gartner defines the strategic portfolio management (SPM) market as cloud-based and on-premises applications for enterprisewide strategic planning, which forecast the transition to a future state where desired business outcomes are realized. SPM offerings provide advanced modeling capabilities and continuous monitoring, engaging stakeholders in informed, data-driven portfolio decision making. These products are ideal for organizations investing in digital strategies that demand frequent stakeholder collaboration and continual adaptation to maximize outcomes. SPM helps organizations navigate complex, ever-changing business needs and constant IT evolution, enabling dynamic stakeholder engagement to maintain strategic alignment and make critical decisions. SPM technologies model an organization’s strategic plans to achieve its desired outcomes through initiatives as a strategic investment portfolio. Organizations can use SPM product capabilities to forecast outcomes, monitor portfolio performance, analyze impacts, and compare alternative scenarios to continually optimize investments for better outcomes. Digital strategies involve multiple interdependent portfolios, such as business capabilities, products, platforms, applications, and IT services, in addition to investments. SPM modeling enforces portfolio relationships, yielding contextualized insights for collaborative and confident portfolio decisions to adapt to outcome-related performance concerns and changing business conditions.