Roadmap
A roadmap is a time-oriented planning artifact that communicates intended goals, initiatives, milestones, capabilities, or changes and their sequence.
Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure
A product roadmap is a time-oriented plan describing a product's intended outcomes, priorities, and future development direction.
- How it is used
- Connects modernization initiatives to business outcomes and makes priorities, milestones, and participation visible.
- How deep it goes
- Distinguishes high-level and fine-grained roadmaps and explains their planning risks without prescribing a template.
- Examples
- Uses core- and supporting-domain investment priorities, a three-to-six-month first slice, and EventStorming during an initiative marked as delivered.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform iterative roadmap planning by selecting an early slice, coordinating dependencies, and revising plans as evidence emerges.
Think Like a Software Engineering Manager
A planning artifact that communicates a product's intended features, changes, and direction over time.
- How it is used
- Guides project discovery by outlining intended product features or changes before detailed project planning.
- How deep it goes
- Defines product and technical roadmap roles and sketches strategic components, but leaves budgets and trackers to later planning.
- Examples
- Illustrates cross-team alignment through a car-rental promotion revamp and a business-value case for changing a royalty team’s roadmap.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform it: Outline intended changes, identify milestones and dependencies, and align a technical roadmap with strategic goals.
Read how Think Like a Software Engineering Manager explains roadmap →
Effective Platform Engineering
A product roadmap is a planned sequence of product capabilities and changes intended to guide future product development.
- How it is used
- Guides platform-product investment by turning user feedback and strategic goals into communicated, prioritized delivery steps.
- How deep it goes
- Explains research, prioritization, communication, review, and iteration, but stops short of prescribing a specific prioritization framework.
- Examples
- Uses automated deployment pipelines, self-service infrastructure provisioning, roadmap reviews, and metrics such as adoption, delivery frequency, and recovery time.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via a platform roadmap to prioritize valuable capabilities, communicate tradeoffs, limit scope creep, and adapt delivery to usage.
Delivering Machine Learning Projects: From design to deployment
A project roadmap is a high-level, time-oriented plan that sequences project work, timing, dependencies, milestones, and major phases.
- How it is used
- Guides project sequencing, dependency management, stakeholder agreement, and delivery communication.
- How deep it goes
- Explains three adjustable sprints and their dependencies, but stops short of prescribing detailed schedules or task estimates.
- Examples
- Uses three ML delivery sprints, early UX work, and documentation deliverables such as infrastructure, privacy, architecture, and evaluation reports.
- What you can do after
- Apply it by sequencing project work, revising phases when evidence changes, and securing stakeholder agreement on the revised plan.
Read how Delivering Machine Learning Projects: From design to deployment explains roadmap →
Related concepts
- engineering managerproduced by · An engineering manager is a leader responsible for guiding engineers, coordinating technical work, and operating engineering teams toward organizational objectives.
- product ownerconfigured by · A product owner is a role responsible for representing product needs and value and guiding the priorities and direction of product work.
- customer problemuses · A customer problem is a difficulty, unmet need, requirement, or desired outcome experienced by a product or service’s intended customers.
These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.