How to Create a Project Roadmap: Your Quick Guide for Effective Planning

Project roadmaps are designed to keep all project participants updated about all significant events within the predefined plan.

How to create a project roadmap that will ensure everyone in your team is on the same page and have mutual objectives?

This can be a real challenge but this post is aimed to help you figure it out. Let’s dive in!

What is a project roadmap?

A project roadmap serves as a visual overview of a project. It contains the key business goals and primary stages of project development.

You can easily build it with the help of an online Gantt chart that is widely used as a basement for many roadmap tools.

A typical project roadmap doesn’t include daily tasks, subtasks, assignees, and other essential details related to the project. This strategic planning tool demonstrates a big picture of your project initiation and completion. It is rather useful for the marketing team, sales, and investors.

Project managers use the roadmap to:

• Start a project on time.
• Ensure project participants are aware of all business objectives.
• Share project progress.
• Meet stakeholder expectations.
• Build a foundation for a future project plan.

The components of a typical project roadmap

To work with a project roadmap in a professional manner, you should first understand the key components of this tool.

The following elements compose a typical project management roadmap:

• Project scope — a planning part that includes information about the main tasks, objectives, costs, and approximate deadlines.
• Timeline — a schedule with all project activities and their timeframes.
• Deliverable — a result that you strive to achieve when your project is over.
• Project milestones — key checkpoints that separate crucial project stages.
• Possible risks — potential challenges before the project starts.
• Contacts — phone numbers of key participants for quick access in case they will have something urgent.

Now when you know the common components of the powerful PM tool, it’s time to get the details about creating an effective project roadmap.

How to create a project roadmap: 7 steps to follow

There are 7 steps for building a comprehensive project roadmap.

1. Identify your business goals

The first question managers ask themselves when striving to know how to create a roadmap for a project is “What goals are we expecting to achieve?”

Thinking about it helps to avoid confusion and ensures that everybody related to the project has the same objectives.

2. Set priorities

Prioritization also has a serious influence on the way how to make a roadmap for a project. It is rather essential to define what actions will turn your idea into real outcomes and achieve project goals.

3. Run a kickoff meeting

The process of creating a project roadmap requires arranging meetings.

Introduce your team to stakeholders and other project participants with the help of a kickoff meeting. It will also allow discussing and covering all gaps before the project starts.

4. Pick up an appropriate PM tool

Your project roadmap can be built with PowerPoint or Excel. However if your project is complicated enough, it is better to choose a professional project management tool that will suit your business.

The best solutions for creating stunning roadmaps are designed based on Gantt diagrams.

5. Create a project timeline

It will include dividing your project into core stages and tasks, setting due dates, and plotting these activities on the timeline. It is better to separate each stage of your roadmap by milestones. It will help to meet deadlines without panic and negative surprises.

6. Finish the roadmap

If the mock-up of your roadmap is ready, it is time to fill it with additional information such as key contacts, possible risks, and costs. This will logically complete the creation of your roadmap.

7. Initiate stakeholders review

The only action left is sharing the roadmap with stakeholders to ensure it meets their expectations and provides an overall view of the project.

Conclusion

Building a powerful roadmap for a project is a significant process leading to success. But its creation requires effort and time. However, if you do everything in the proper way, effective results will not keep you waiting.

A well-prepared project roadmap ensures a project manager is not distracted by third-party tasks and explanations. It also saves your working time and boosts team productivity.

If you want to get more details about the process of creating a project roadmap, feel free to explore the full version of this article How to Create a Winning Project Roadmap: Tips and Tricks for Various Teams https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/how-to-create-a-project-roadmap/.

Also read: Best Excel alternatives.