A Project Roadmap is the best format to communicate project plans to executive boards and stakeholders. Here’s how to create one.

Time needed: 1 hour.

This process walks you through the steps to create your own roadmap slide for a presentation or to share.

Choose your “Workstreams” (or “swim lanes”)
“Workstreams” are the ongoing, most important delivery areas of your Product / Project.
You will arrange key activities within these areas.
There may be just one, and there may be many.
Our advice is to choose 3-5 workstreams.
These are also known as “Project Swim Lanes”.
Set the Timeframe
Think: “What timeframe do you need to cover?”
Be careful – the further in the future you go, the more uncertain. Read up on “the cone of uncertainty”
Establish the important activities in each stream
Within each Workstream, what are the key areas of activity?
The could be “Projects” or “Tasks” etc, depending on your kind of product / programme / project.
Bear in mind that you want the whole roadmap readable within 5 mins, so you do not want lots & lots.
Communicate risk levels
Use colour coding of the activity boxes in each work stream to indicate levels of risk or certainty.
Explain your colour coding in a “Legend” at the top.
You can use “Red Amber Green” or just highlight the Medium and High risks with amber and red.
Set some Milestones
You should include a few key dates on the timeline.
These can be represented as “Milestones”.
e.g. Launches, handovers, closures, migrations, etc.
Add any other important points
Bear in mind: your Roadmap tells your story.
It needs to do that within 5 mins.
Still,.. are there any other important points you need to highlight?
If so, then put them in as call-out “comments”!

Some more help for Creating Your Roadmap

Communicating your project plans and strategy in one document is not a simple process.
Project, programme and portfolio managers are increasingly using Roadmap Template formats to establish a clear, shared understanding of project plans, especially at the board and executive level.

Example Project Roadmap Layout

This is our popular Visio Roadmap Template from 2005.

Characteristics of a Project Roadmap

Communicates project plans at a glance
1. Highlights important milestones
2. Tells your stakeholders what to expect, and when
Demonstrates the use of the capacity you have available
1. Demonstrates where your resources and budget are being allocated
2. Gives a sense of proportional allocation
Draws attention to important issues
1. Keeps them few
2. Makes them clear
Gives you a tool to “manage upwards”
1. Highlights what you need from stakeholders
2. Manages expectations

Create your Roadmap

Before committing this to an electronic format, sketch it out on a large piece of paper, using pencil and eraser

If you want to save time – you can see some Powerpoint Roadmap examples here.
1. These roadmap samples can help you with layout ideas.
2. There are Visio Roadmaps and Powerpoint Roadmaps.
Set out your timeline
1. How far do you want to show?
2. Make sure this is going to be a relevant period of time – i.e. don’t go too far into the future
Establish your workstreams
1. Where are the areas of resource or budget focus?
2. Work these into discrete “workstreams” of activity
3. This helps you communicate to your stakeholders and their colleagues where the business is focussing
Work out the high-level activities within each workstream
1. Keep the level of detail down
2. e.g. if your entire timeline is 12 months long, don’t include any activities below 1 month long
3. Keep this realistic – i.e. don’t overload any of the workstreams
If there are areas of high risk – add labels
1. Resource issues/constraint/risks
2. Financial issues/constraint/risks
3. External issues/constraint/risks
Put in your key milestones
1. In a timeline along the top of your Roadmap, add markers for important dates
2. Keep these dates realistic
3. leave plenty of contingency
4. If a date/milestone is tentative – clearly mark it so
Clearly demark the status of your document
1. If it is “draft”, clearly label it with “DRAFT” at the top of the document
2. Give it a version number
3. If it has been signed off by a key stakeholder, mark this prominently

With all parts of this Roadmap process, try and keep your roadmap document uncluttered.

Then create your electronic version – see the list of templates below if you need a good starting point.

Testing your Roadmap

Use a friend or colleage as a guinea pig to test your Roadmap.
They should be able to understand your roadmap and your project timelines within 1 minute of looking at it.
This is what separates it from a standard “Project Plan”.

Keep your Roadmap up to date

Once created, you must be sure to keep your roadmap up to date.
If you are running an agile process (i.e. regular iterations and regular product releases), keep your Roadmap updated at regular intervals in time with your iterations.

Specialist Executive and Boardroom Templates

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How do I create a Project Roadmap?

Some more help for Creating Your Roadmap

Example Project Roadmap Layout

Characteristics of a Project Roadmap

Create your Roadmap

Testing your Roadmap

Keep your Roadmap up to date

Short on time?

Use these templates to help with business best practice:

Business Topics

Template Types

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