Well Structured IT Roadmaps contain the following elements:
- A Strategy Statement that lists what specific goals the project aims to accomplish and what technologies will be needed to support the project.
- A timeline of the project. This should include the beginning and end of the project, how long the project is expected to take as well as how long it should take to reach its milestones and the scale of the project.
- A list of what opportunities exists to improve business operations. First concentrate on the opportunities that are most important. Notably, this list should be jointly created by senior leaders as well as the IT or technology department to make sure there are technologies that can support these potential projects.
- A justification for the projects that the organization chooses to take on. Projects that are expected to take over 1 year should have more of a rationale than those that are thought to take less than a year to complete.
- The cost of each project as well as its predicted duration. Notably, the expenses for each project are just estimations.
- The individual who will be in charge of each project. More specifically, this individual will make project decisions or allocate tasks to project team members. If the project is expected to last more than a year, this individual will be the owning executive rather than one specific project leader.
After it is created, the IT Roadmap is usually used in three ways:
- As a presentation tool for meetings with senior leaders. The IT roadmap clearly delineates what projects the organization is planning on enacting to improve its internal functions. In this way, the leadership team can make informed decisions on what projects to invest in and how to allocate the company budget.
- As a decision-making aid for the IT department when they are determining how to distribute their resources and what tasks to assign their team members. Additionally, the roadmap will give the department a sense of how much money they will spend and select their vendor.
- As a tool for department heads to understand what to expect. More specifically, the IT roadmap will help department heads make decisions on how to balance current tasks with those that they will need to complete for future projects and how the project will affect their daily operations.




