Developments in Practice XXIII: Creating and Evolving a Technology Roadmap

The authors convened a focus group of senior IT managers from a variety of different companies/industries to explore current practice in terms of creating and evolving a technology roadmap. Starting with a definition of a technology roadmap, the paper outlines the benefits attributable to a well-crafted roadmap and presents a 7-step model for its creation. According to the focus group, companies without the guidance of a roadmap run the risk of making sub-optimal decisions – technology choices that make sense today but position the company poorly for the future. The focus group also argued that the exercise of developing a technology roadmap is valuable even if the actual roadmap that is developed is subject to frequent change. This paper represents a summary of the focus group discussion.