97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 50. Roadmaps: What Have We Done for You Lately?

Kathy MacDougall

GOOD COMMUNICATION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE PROJECT TEAM is a key factor in the success of any project. An important communication tool for all projects is the official project roadmap. The project plan helps your immediate project team chart a course for change at the task level. By contrast, the project roadmap allows the broader stakeholder community to understand the change that will happen at a higher level. The project roadmap is a vehicle that helps to communicate the planned changes, the timeframes for specific changes, and the impact these changes will have on the business.

So how does one go about creating a project roadmap? First, enlist the input of top project stakeholders. What features are important to them? What's the priority level of each of these features? Are there things happening within the business that will make it important to have particular features ready by a specific date? Capture the voice of the customer and use this as the foundation for a draft roadmap.

Next, create a draft of the roadmap that shows a list of high-level features grouped into a realistic timeframe (quarterly works well typically). For each feature, describe the business value (e.g., reduce time to place an order by two minutes; reduce cost to place an order by $10) on the roadmap. If the business value cannot be described, ...