The portfolio should maintain several roadmaps at different levels of granularity and detail:
- A multi-year portfolio roadmap showing when significant change initiatives are expected to start and finish
- A more detailed quarterly view for the next year that shows what outcomes are expected to be delivered in each quarter
All these roadmaps should reflect the roadmaps of any sub-portfolios and should be reviewed and updated as part of the Quarterly Portfolio Review and Quarterly Planning.
Note, these are forecast roadmaps and not plans – they should represent the current view, but should and will change as knowledge is gained and due to external changes (for example, driving changes to priorities)
Portfolio Roadmap
Each portfolio should have a multi-year roadmap that shows how it expects to deliver it’s change portfolio using its budget and headcount to achieve its overarching objectives, providing transparency and visibility of the forecasted delivery of value. This should show:
- All large change initiatives with their forecasted start and end dates
- Any forecast periods of innovation activity and the objective or change initiative they are de-risking and elaborating
- Any significant milestones that acknowledge a significant delivery of value (e.g. users will be able to do this), a major internal event (e.g. an initial release), or an external event (e.g. trade event or compliance deadline)
- How the portfolio’s budget, headcount, and delivery teams are expected to flex
In the first year, high confidence and low risk and complexity should allow visualisation of the roadmap in quarters. Beyond this, as confidence decreases and risk increases, the granularity of the roadmap should reduce to 6 monthly and ultimately to annually.
Delivery Roadmap
Each portfolio should also have a delivery roadmap that provides a quarterly view of the value being delivered in the next 9-12 months. This should show:
- The outcomes being delivered in each quarter across innovation, change and run
- Any significant or relevant milestones
- How the portfolio’s budget, headcount, and delivery teams are expected to flex over the quarters
The Delivery Roadmap should always be presented in a quarterly timeline aligned to Quarterly Planning. The first quarter should reflect the outputs from the associated Quarterly Planning event and should be considered committed delivery. In the second and third quarters there is likely to be less certainty, so this information is considered a forecast. The fourth quarter can be left intentionally blank (or with minimal detail), as emergent changes are likely to significantly impact this.