How to Create a Project Roadmap (Example Included)

A venture roadmap is the easiest way to summarize your venture’s what, why and the way into an easy-to-understand format that may be shared with anybody. A venture administration roadmap is a novel software with a distinct goal than related venture paperwork corresponding to a venture constitution, milestone chart, venture schedule or venture plan.

What Is a Undertaking Roadmap?

A venture roadmap is a software that maps out venture duties, milestones and deliverables on a timeline. Its fundamental goal is to offer a high-level visible illustration of the bigger venture plan and clarify its phases. It additionally consists of necessary scope, threat and useful resource administration data. As a result of it acts as a information, the venture roadmap can be a terrific communication software that can be utilized to maintain stakeholders knowledgeable all through the venture life cycle.

It’s the general doc that speaks to the technique of the venture and why that technique is being engaged. Due to this fact, the venture roadmap helps venture managers guarantee everybody engaged on the venture understands the venture plan. Undertaking roadmaps are created with Gantt charts, a venture administration software program function that lets venture managers map out duties on visible venture timelines.

ProjectManager’s on-line Gantt charts lets your arrange duties, add milestones, allocate assets, hyperlink all 4 process dependencies, and filter for the essential path. You possibly can even set a baseline to trace progress and prices in actual time. This venture roadmap knowledge can be proven in real-time venture dashboards, kanban boards, timesheets and different venture administration instruments. Share feedback and recordsdata with limitless storage. Get began at no cost.

When Ought to You Use a Undertaking Roadmap?

Undertaking roadmaps must be used any time there’s a venture, program or venture portfolio that must be managed. A venture roadmap must be created throughout the venture planning section, however they’re used all through initiatives as a monitoring software everybody can examine, corresponding to key stakeholders, venture managers and staff members.

Due to their simplicity, venture roadmaps are generally utilized by venture managers, program managers and venture administration workplaces (PMOs) as portfolio administration instruments. With venture roadmaps, they will maintain monitor of their a number of initiatives with ease.

Undertaking Roadmap vs. Product Roadmap

A venture roadmap isn’t the identical as a product roadmap. Though they’re related visible planning instruments, product roadmaps have particular options that make them higher fitted to product growth functions. Undertaking roadmaps are much like product roadmaps, however they’ve slight variations. In case you’re main a product growth staff, it’s best to use a product roadmap as an alternative.

Undertaking Roadmap vs. Undertaking Plan

As said above, a venture roadmap will be seen as a “gentle model” of your venture plan, which additional defines all your venture areas corresponding to your scope, threat administration plan and useful resource administration plan amongst others.

 

What Ought to Be Included in a Undertaking Roadmap?

A venture roadmap isn’t only a venture timeline. It’s a venture administration software that enables organizations to plan, schedule and monitor initiatives all through their life cycle. Listed below are a number of the venture administration variables that have to be thought of when creating one.

• Undertaking targets and aims: The principle thrust of any venture roadmap is the high-level targets and aims of the venture. It’s necessary to ensure the roadmap aligns with these targets, however there’s no want to enter nice element as your venture targets and aims are defined in venture paperwork such because the venture plan or venture constitution.
• Undertaking dangers: State the primary venture dangers that might make your venture fail or compromise main parts of the venture plan just like the scope, schedule, targets, stakeholder expectations, high quality assurance, and many others.
• Undertaking schedule: A venture roadmap ought to have a visible venture schedule displaying the venture duties’ length and due dates. Apart from offering a common venture timeline, it also needs to point out who will probably be chargeable for executing duties and what assets will probably be wanted.
• Activity dependencies: Establish process dependencies primarily based on the duties that you just’ve mapped in your venture timeline. Creating your venture roadmap with a Gantt chart software program software that permits you to hyperlink process dependencies is the simplest solution to characterize dependencies.
• Undertaking assets: Notice the assets you’ll must get the venture executed. These embody human assets like your venture staff and bodily assets corresponding to gear, supplies, and many others. Additionally enter their estimated prices, which can be utilized to trace the venture price range.
• Key people: Checklist the important thing stakeholders and venture roles and the way to attain them.
• Kickoff assembly: Meet concerning the venture administration roadmap and ensure expectations are clear to all stakeholders. (Be sure you have a kickoff assembly agenda ready.)
• Roles & obligations: The roles and obligations of these concerned within the venture are outlined. The venture roadmap defines who’s doing what after which these duties and deliverables will be tracked.

Learn how to Create a Undertaking Roadmap

Merely put, a venture roadmap extracts data out of your venture plan to offer an outline of your venture. The venture roadmap have to be visible and manageable in size so it may be simply digestible by all of the stakeholders and staff members concerned within the venture. Most venture managers use Gantt charts to create venture roadmaps. Right here’s how.

1. Break Down Your Undertaking Scope

Your venture scope is the sum of all of your venture duties, or in different phrases, the work to be carried out in a venture. That’s why defining your venture scope is step one when making a venture roadmap, as you’ll must know what venture actions have to be executed earlier than drafting a venture timeline. You should utilize a piece breakdown construction to ensure you establish each process.

When making a venture roadmap, it’s additionally necessary to establish the deliverables which might be anticipated from every venture process and outline high quality requirements and acceptance standards for them.

2. Make a Undertaking Schedule

When you establish all of your venture duties and estimate their length, it’s time to make use of ProjectManager’s Gantt chart to create a venture schedule. Merely add your venture duties and their anticipated begin and finish dates within the Gantt chart grid because the picture exhibits under. Our Gantt chart maker will mechanically calculate the length of duties primarily based on their due dates and create a venture timeline with that data.

3. Hyperlink Activity Dependencies

Now that you’ve a fundamental venture timeline displaying venture duties, their due dates and length, you should establish process dependencies to make sure will probably be correct. Activity dependencies decide the order by which duties have to be executed. There are 4 forms of process dependencies in venture administration.

• End to begin (FS): A process can’t be began till its previous dependent process has completed.
• Begin to end (SF): A process can’t be completed till its previous dependent process has been began.
• End to End (FF): A process can’t end till its previous process has been accomplished.
• Begin to begin (SS): A process can’t begin till its previous process begins.

As you may think about, process dependencies play a really important function when making a venture schedule, as one mistake can have an effect on the general venture timeline. Fortunately, ProjectManager simplifies the method of linking all these kind of process dependencies.

4. Allocate Undertaking Assets & Observe Prices

All venture duties require assets corresponding to cash, labor, supplies and gear. ProjectManager’s Gantt chart helps organizations allocate these assets and handle venture prices.

Assign duties to staff members, enter their pay charge and the Gantt chart venture roadmap will monitor labor prices as duties are added to it. Then, use the column grids so as to add the estimated prices of non-human assets wanted to finish every process. As soon as the venture begins, this venture roadmap can be utilized to check the estimated prices of the venture towards its precise prices.

5. Set Undertaking Milestones

Undertaking milestones are main accomplishments achieved as initiatives are executed, corresponding to producing a key deliverable, finishing a venture section or reaching a selected venture goal or objective.

These venture milestones can be utilized to make a milestone chart, a simplified model of the venture roadmap that exhibits milestones as an alternative of duties. You possibly can map your venture milestones as nicely within the Gantt chart. Merely choose a process and switch it right into a venture milestone. They’re proven in your Gantt chart as diamond symbols.

Undertaking Roadmap Examples

To higher illustrate the way to create a venture roadmap, let’s take a better have a look at two venture roadmap examples to evaluate the weather that we beforehand talked about.

Conventional Gantt Chart Undertaking Roadmap Instance

This venture roadmap was created with ProjectManager’s Gantt chart. It exhibits duties {that a} venture administration staff wants to finish for the profitable execution of a building venture.

As proven within the picture above, ProjectManager’s Gantt chart has two sections. On the left aspect, there’s a grid or desk the place the venture administration data will be entered and, on the correct, there’s a venture timeline that helps visualize the knowledge from the grid.

• Undertaking phases: The names, due dates and length of venture phases are proven on the left in bolded textual content. On the correct aspect, they’re proven as color-coded bars. For instance, all of the duties within the “Contracts” section are blue, whereas duties from the “Design” venture section are inexperienced.
• Duties: The venture roadmap grid breaks down venture phases into duties and permits venture managers to trace varied particulars about them corresponding to their precedence degree, estimated price, standing and deliverables. Then on the correct, our timeline exhibits their due dates, length, proportion of completion and assignee.
• Activity dependencies: The arrows on the roadmap timeline characterize the dependencies amongst duties.
• Undertaking milestones: The diamond icons characterize the venture milestones that, on this instance, mark the tip of every section. Nevertheless, any process will be transformed right into a milestone on this Gantt chart venture roadmap.
• Key people: You possibly can assign every process to the venture staff members who’re chargeable for them. It’s necessary to enter their pay charge, abilities and availability every time they’re added to the venture roadmap in order that this knowledge is proven when assigning duties. Different venture stakeholders corresponding to shoppers or contractors will be additionally invited into the venture roadmap.

ProjectManager additionally affords a venture portfolio administration roadmap, which is similar to the Gantt chart view, however the primary distinction is it may be used to trace a number of initiatives.

Undertaking Portfolio Administration Roadmap Instance

The venture portfolio roadmap under exhibits a listing of initiatives that an IT administration consulting agency is executing for a number of shoppers. On the correct aspect, there’s only one bar displaying their total timeline for a high-level view of all initiatives of their portfolio.

Nevertheless, every of those initiatives will be expanded by clicking the add symbols. Doing so reveals their venture roadmaps, which will be individually managed utilizing Gantt chart options.

Undertaking Roadmap Template

This free venture roadmap template is good for newbie venture managers. Merely fill out the duty listing and let our Excel template mechanically create a visible timeline for you. When you’re prepared, you may open the venture roadmap in ProjectManager to construct a dynamic roadmap and monitor particulars in actual time, handle assets and far more.

What Free Undertaking Administration Templates Can Assist With Undertaking Roadmaps?

Making a venture roadmap will be difficult. That’s why we’ve created dozens of venture administration templates that can assist you plan, schedule and monitor your initiatives. Listed below are some that may aid you with the venture street mapping course of.

Undertaking Plan Template

This venture plan template helps you collect the knowledge you should begin constructing your venture administration plan. You possibly can simply customise it and fasten any supporting venture paperwork as wanted.

Undertaking Finances Template

Undertaking budgets are essential to begin, execute and full initiatives efficiently. This venture price range template is good to collect all of your venture prices and set spending limits.

Work Breakdown Construction Template

Our work breakdown construction template helps you establish all of your venture duties so you may create a venture roadmap, timeline and price range.

What Undertaking Administration Instruments Can Be Used to Create a Undertaking Roadmap?

As we’ve mentioned above, venture roadmaps condense data from the venture plan and venture schedule right into a high-level overview. To take action, they need to embody venture aims, milestones, assets and duties. A number of the mostly used venture administration instruments to make venture roadmaps are Gantt charts, kanban boards, venture dashboards and venture timelines.

There are various venture administration software program merchandise that handle one or a few of these options. The wrestle is to discover a one-stop answer that may act as a venture planning, scheduling and monitoring software. As well as, venture managers want a collaborative platform to not solely share the venture roadmap but in addition assign duties, schedule assets and make it easy for groups to replace their standing.

ProjectManager Helps You Create Undertaking Roadmaps in Minutes

Our venture administration software program has the options for on a regular basis venture administration, but in addition the broad strokes essential to compose a venture roadmap for particular person initiatives or venture portfolio administration. Our on-line Gantt charts give each a high-level overview of the venture in addition to a spot to gather and assign duties that then will be up to date by venture managers and staff members.

Observe Your Undertaking Roadmap with On-line Dashboards

The actual-time dashboard then displays these adjustments as they occur, so everybody sees precisely the place the venture is and may handle points earlier than they develop into issues. The actual-time dashboard is a robust venture administration software that goes past roadmap planning, permitting venture managers to maintain monitor of their price range, progress, work and time.

Hold Undertaking Assets Balanced

Holding your assets correctly allotted is the way you keep on monitor. You don’t wish to overallocated them. That results in burnout. Retain your staff members and maintain them productive with our useful resource administration options. Use the color-coded workload chart to see at a look who has too many or too few duties. You possibly can reallocate your staff proper from that chart to stability their workload and maintain them working at capability.

Associated Undertaking Roadmap Content material

ProjectManager is on-line venture administration software program, which implies knowledge is collected in actual time, and groups can entry the instruments even when they’re working remotely. Our software program affords a collaborative platform and the power to speak on the process degree to make it possible for the venture roadmap at all times displays the most recent data. See the way it might help you create a venture roadmap and handle its execution by taking this free 30-day trial.