How do I create a Project Roadmap?

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

1. Communicates project plans at a glance
   1. Highlights important milestones
   2. Tells your stakeholders what to expect, and when
2. 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
3. Draws attention to important issues
   1. Keeps them few
   2. Makes them clear
4. 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

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. If there are areas of high risk – add labels
   1. Resource issues/constraint/risks
   2. Financial issues/constraint/risks
   3. External issues/constraint/risks
6. 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
7. 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.