Section 8.6. Step 5: Creating Roadmaps

8.6. Step 5: Creating Roadmaps

Now that a set of business cases have been selected based on their priorities, the last task is to create a roadmap for each such business case. A roadmap breaks up the complete solution of a business case into a set of milestones. Each milestone corresponds to an iteration of the final solution. It contains a strategically planned subset of the entire scope of the business case that can be achieved within the time frame of the milestone. The design and implementation effort corresponding to a particular milestone typically begins when the previous milestone has been completed successfully.

Consider a concrete example: Suppose that a business case named Track Inventory Using RFID calls for an RFID solution to ship orders from four distribution centers (DCs), all using the same operation flow. Also assume that each DC has 10 dock doors. Figure 8-14 shows what an example roadmap for this business case might look like.

Figure 8-14. An example roadmap for a sample business case.

Note how methodically the scope (of the complete RFID solution as targeted by the business case) is broken down so that each successive iteration builds upon the successful completion of the preceding one. Also note that the first three iterations are small in scope, which is deliberate so that the principal impacting factors of the solution can be identified and solved while keeping their effect constrained within a single DC. After this has been completed successfully, the fourth iteration attempts to replicate the solution in the second DC. A new set of variables might show up associated with the duplication effort that was not apparent in the first three iterations. After this has been tackled successfully, the last iteration duplicates the solution in the remaining two DCs.