The Forrester Wave Methodology

For information about citations, access the Forrester Wave™ Citation Guidelines.

A Forrester Wave builds upon the participation of these key players:

• Analyst. The analyst is the content expert for the research. The analyst determines the inclusion criteria, the evaluation criteria, and the scoring framework, based on our methodology, and couples that with their knowledge of the marketplace and the needs of our clients.
• Research director. The research director (RD) works closely with the analyst to develop the inclusion criteria, evaluation criteria, and scoring framework. The RD also reviews all scores and the vendor profiles.
• Project manager. The project manager (PM) is responsible for creating and maintaining the project schedule and serves as the main Forrester contact for the vendors. The PM may also participate in reference customer calls.
• Vendor response team. Forrester relies on this team’s participation to provide feedback on the evaluation criteria, identify candidates for customer interviews, provide demos and briefings, and collect and verify the product and company information we use in the evaluation.
• Reference customers.  Forrester asks each vendor we evaluate to provide reference customers. Our research team contacts each of the references to give feedback based on their experience with the service or product we are evaluating. We do not name reference customers in the report unless agreed upon prior to publication. While the Wave is in progress, Forrester views any vendor attempts to speak with references about their responses or ask them to revise their responses after a Wave interview as a violation of the Wave Methodology. This may result in the vendor forfeiting part or all of the vendor review process.

In preparation for the evaluation, the research team:

• Defines the scope and identifies vendors.  As part of the research, the analyst defines the scope of the evaluation and identifies the vendors in the space. Forrester reserves the right to evaluate products and services, regardless of vendor participation. We will not consider vendor requests to remove themselves from a Forrester Wave. However, Forrester reserves the right to remove a vendor from a Forrester Wave at any point in the process if we find it to be incompatible with the Forrester Wave objectives.
• Drafts inclusion and evaluation criteria.  Based on the scope of the Forrester Wave, the analyst creates the inclusion criteria that determine which vendors to include in the evaluation. The analyst also defines the criteria we will use to evaluate the product or service. We intend the criteria to be differentiating, rather than exhaustive.
• Invites vendors and shares key Wave materials.  The research team invites vendors to participate in the Wave, shares reference materials, and outlines key deliverables.

Participating vendors provide three inputs for a Forrester Wave evaluation: a questionnaire, a strategy and product demo session, and reference customers. During this phase, the research team:

• Distributes a questionnaire with the evaluation criteria. Forrester creates a questionnaire, which includes all the evaluation criteria and instructions about the types of information the analyst is looking for, and distributes it to the participating vendors.
• Holds executive strategy briefings and demonstrations. The vendors follow the criteria laid out in the questionnaire and, potentially, scenarios developed by Forrester to demonstrate the functionality of each product. During the evaluation, the research team captures detailed notes and may record the presentation. Forrester does not provide a copy of the recording to participating vendors.
• Interviews reference customers. Forrester interviews or surveys the reference customers provided by the vendor. If necessary, the analyst also speaks with other customers about the vendor’s product.

In this phase, the analyst creates scale explanations for each criterion. The analyst uses the information gathered during the evaluation to score each vendor against those scales and to weight criteria according to importance. We use those scores and weightings to produce the Forrester Wave graphic. We base Forrester Wave scoring on the data-gathering process described above as well as the analyst’s experience and expertise in the market. At this stage, participating vendors have the opportunity to provide feedback on their scores and profile. See The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Review Policy for more details.

After we finalize the scorecard and profile, we send copies to each vendor. This is the last time vendors see their scorecards before the Forrester Wave goes live on Forrester.com.

Prior to publication, Forrester provides a courtesy preview of the Forrester Wave document to the evaluated vendors. This preview period typically occurs five days before publication, and Forrester does not accept any new information or escalation during this time. We consider the content of the Forrester Wave to be final at this point, although we reserve the right to make corrections until publication.

• In some cases, a vendor we’re evaluating makes a major change to its offering or strategy during the course of the evaluation. This may include a product announcement, a product enhancement, a merger or acquisition, a brand name change, or a divestiture. To ensure a fair and efficient evaluation process, Forrester presents each company or product as it is publicly represented at the time of the research kickoff.
• Announcements that vendors share with Forrester after kickoff (such as during the briefing or demo) may inform our evaluation or the advice that we provide to clients in our text summary of the product. We do not, however, guarantee that we will represent any changes that take place after the kickoff.
• We allow for one exception: If a vendor we’re evaluating completes an acquisition of or merger with another vendor we’re evaluating, and the public acquisition announcement takes place during the evaluation period but before our courtesy preview, we will note it as a footnote on the Wave graphic and in each company’s written review. We do not reevaluate companies based on changes announced during the evaluation period.

The Forrester Wave process lasts approximately 18 weeks from kickoff to publication. Vendors that participate in the research:

• Have approximately four weeks from the kickoff date to return a questionnaire and provide names of reference customers.
• Hold strategy briefings and product demonstrations (where applicable) within the two weeks following the questionnaire due date.
• Receive initial scores approximately six to seven weeks after the questionnaire due date, upon which the review period begins.
• Receive a courtesy preview of the final report approximately five days prior to publication.

Our iconic Forrester Wave graphic is getting a new, bolder look for Wave evaluations that kick off on or after July 1, 2024, and publish in Q4 2024. What’s new?

• We’ll feature three categories: Leader, Strong Performer, and Contender. Wave evaluations represent a top set of vendors in a market. Three bands better show our calls about where vendors sit in a market relative to their peers and align with our 3-point scoring rubric. Evaluated vendors will be ranked as Leaders, Strong Performers, or Contenders.
• Customer feedback will replace market presence on the graphic. Customer feedback representation on the Wave graphic reflects Forrester’s strong belief in the value of customer obsession. Vendors with superior customer feedback will receive a more prominent marker on the graphic. We consider factors such as whether the vendor provided the full complement of reference customers that we requested; the response rate from the references; the breadth of relevant functionality or services that the references have leveraged; the presence of enterprise references (as opposed to small- or medium-size businesses); and the references’ overall satisfaction. We also consider what we’ve heard from customers we’ve spoken with outside of the Wave process.
• We’ll indicate vendor participation in the report, rather than on the graphic. Vendor participation isn’t a binary and can take many forms: a questionnaire, a production demo, a strategy briefing, reference customers, and feedback on results. Vendors may participate in some or all of these steps. The scorecard review process will still be reserved for vendors that provide all these inputs. Vendors can now provide input into the research without having to be concerned about whether they’ll receive a white dot or a gray dot.