Business Capability Roadmap
About a Business Capability Roadmap
This page will explain the key parts of a Business Capability Roadmap as part of your Capability Development strategy in your organization. Read about workstreams, activities, timelines, and other elements in a good Project Roadmap.
A Business Capability Roadmap is a simple presentation of Ambitions and Goals alongside a timeline.
A Business Capability Roadmap is NOT the place for detailed plans and detailed information.
What are Business Capability Roadmaps used for?
- To quickly communicate business capability plans & goals.
- To manage stakeholder expectations.
- To generate a shared understanding across the teams involved.
- To communicate plans with other important teams/organizations.
What does a Business Capability Roadmap include?
- Must Have: The Business Capability Goals articulated; at least in the deliverables listed.
- Must Have: A timeline – to show when things will happen
- Must Have: The high-level titles for the big deliverables (don’t get into the detail!!)
- Should Have: The workstreams in separate “Swim Lanes”.
- Should Have: Milestones of key events when you expect them.
- Could Have: Areas of high risk.
- Could Have: Areas where you have dependencies.
Key Characteristics of Business Capability Roadmaps
- It gives a sense of the Business Capability Goals
- Either explicitly in plain words “The goal is …”
- Or in the deliverables listed
- It shows the plans for realizing Business Capabilities in simple terms
- Not too detailed
- Just the high-level titles for each deliverable
- You should not have more than 4 per year for any workstream
- It is on 1 side of the paper (or 1 slide)
- So – keep it simple and focussed!
- It shows Business Capability plans alongside a timeline
- It shows the order of the deliverables; what’s first, and what comes next!
- You can read it and understand it in 3 mins
- Anyone who picks it up can understand what it’s about
- The titles and deliverables are in plain language
- Avoid acronyms and team jargon
- It has your name on it – so people can contact you with questions
Do the DEMO for generating a Business Capability Map yourself.
Creating a Roadmap can have useful side-effects
The process of creating a road map, with key stakeholders of the Capabilities, can be beneficial on its own:
- It ensures that the team and stakeholders understand capacity
- It forces priority decisions
- It promotes a shared understanding in the wider team