Business roadmaps establish a linkage from corporate strategies (the why) to releases (the when) and finally to features (the what) in a chronological plan. Strategic goals that are visually represented in a business roadmap keep stakeholders aligned and on track.
Business development assumes that the operational strategy can be successfully executed. That’s not always the case. A roadmap for business introduces the concept of continuous evolution toward an unknown objective. We know, in general, where we need to go, but there are small details around how to get there. That’s acceptable if we capture what we know today.
Roadmaps present visions in two forms: staged and continuous. The staged format concentrates on a specific start and end to the business journey. For example, in healthcare, there might be a roadmap that starts at the first contact with the patient and ends with the last contact for that specific episode of care. The benefit of a staged approach is that there’s a clear start and finish that needs to be mapped. The challenge is that iterative processes—critical processes or capabilities that ebb and flow—may be left out of the map and, therefore, impact our future strategy.
Read More from This Article: IDG Contributor Network: How to navigate the maze of business roadmaps
Source: IT Strategy