- March 1, 2023
- Posted by: Shalini W
- Category: Information Technology
A technological roadmap facilitates the adoption of new technologies, the migration of old processes, and the acceleration of time-to-value using new tools. If staff cannot figure out how to incorporate new tools and software into their processes, there is a greater probability that your digital transformation efforts will fail.
Hence, if you’re planning a digital transformation, you should develop a clear roadmap for moving to a new tech stack, and collaborate with your entire business to make it happen.
- The distinction between technology-only roadmaps and IT systems roadmaps
- Why a road map is required to handle technical projects
- Designing a technological road map
What constitutes an effective digital transformation roadmap?
Historically, the concept of a technological roadmap was limited to product management and the product features that will be developed. In the context of digital transformation, a technology roadmap also involves your entire organisation and your attitude to the tools you use as the business’s demands evolve.
A roadmap for IT systems outlines the features a company now employs in its software stack, the use cases where it falls short, and the capabilities required by an alternative solution.
A technological roadmap, on the other hand, depicts the infrastructural tools of a business as well as any planned updates.
Four Advantages of a Technological Roadmap
A technology road map indicates where a business is on its path to digital transformation. It enables you to comprehend the characteristics you’re receiving from your existing tools, why you’re transferring to an alternative, and how you plan to add new tools to your stack.
1) Aligns technology projects with the needs and goals of the firm
Digital transformation initiatives are frequently vanity projects aimed to promote a number of executives without first determining whether another SaaS licence will be beneficial to the firm. It is no surprise that an astounding 84% of digital transitions fail and that the little percentage that succeeds exceeds budgets and deadlines.
A technology roadmap will help you align digital transformation projects with your organization’s long-term objectives, reduce waste, and maximize the return on every dollar spent.
2) Motivates change through open communication
A digital transformation is always an enterprise-wide undertaking: Executives establish the project’s scope, developers and IT operators make infrastructure decisions, and end-users provide input on both sides’ decisions.
You need a technology road map to manage this effort and prevent stakeholders from working on a project that fulfills their needs but makes little sense for the rest of the organization.
3) Maintain IT project schedules
Technological roadmaps are based on the expected duration of digital transformation or adoption efforts. With a technological roadmap, stakeholders can rein in a project when it exceeds smaller milestones (say, days or weeks) as opposed to when it stagnates for a number.
How to Create a Roadmap for Technology
A technological road map does not have to be sophisticated or time-consuming. But you must know precisely why you’re adopting a new product, which features you’ll be utilizing, and how to convince a critical mass of your organization’s end-users to convert.
1) Determine your goals
No, not abstract goals such as monitoring hours of usage within a new programme, but real business objectives. Connect the adoption of your product to revenue growth, faster customer service, and improved customer retention, among other product adoption measures.
2) Know your roadmap’s audience
Who will be involved in the development of your roadmap? If you’re designing for CEOs, give them the tools they need to make speedy judgements. Technical operators require comprehensive road maps that account for even the smallest technical aspects. End-users require versions of the roadmap with focused information that facilitates their adoption of products with little friction.
3) Provide adequate access to stakeholders
Keep distinct versions for the various kinds of stakeholders involved in your product adoption or digital transformation initiatives. In other words, make it simple to comprehend your roadmap based on the use case of a stakeholder.
8 Components of a Technological Roadmap for Digital Transformation
What constitutes a good road map? Here are eight elements of a functional technology roadmap that can assist you in managing your product adoption or digital transformation project.
1) Goals
Define your objectives and divide them into a timeline. Your IT Road map should clearly align with the short- and long-term objectives of your organization.
2) New system capabilities
What capabilities do you anticipate receiving from your new software solution to assist you in achieving your stated objectives? What characteristics should your new programme possess? What measures do you plan to use to measure it?
3) Disseminate plans
These are the documents that track the features your product adoption initiatives will prioritise at each stage.
4) Milestones
The aforementioned release plans will assist you in introducing to your team the milestones that must be reached within a particular time frame.
5) Resources
This refers to the technical resources, tools, and individuals required to accelerate your digital transformation and adoption. This may include a platform for on-demand support, tutorials, webinars, and regular one-on-one sessions.
6) Training
Provide for a product training time during which the personnel specified in No. 4 (Resources) will instruct end-users to get them up to speed more quickly.
7) Hazard considerations
What possible obstacles can develop during the course of your adoption project? Define them and take preventative measures.
8) progress reports
The purpose of status reports is to address the question “how are we doing?” It allows you to track the efficacy of your digital transformation and adoption activities, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments and scale new technologies even more quickly. Determine which KPIs and metrics for digital transformation are most important and develop reports that highlight any patterns.
Top Tools for Creating Technological Roadmaps
The proper tool will allow you to design customizable roadmaps that can unite all of your stakeholders, track your progress, and identify any impediments to your digital transformation initiatives.
1) Business plan
Product plan’s greatest strength and worst drawback is that it produces easy roadmaps for product managers, engineering teams, and developers. Product plan is built almost primarily for engineering and development use cases, making it a poor choice for product adoption or digital transformation initiatives.
2) Lucidchart
Lucidchart, like Product plan, allows you to visually communicate strategy, split your product adoption into epics, and allocate tasks to particular team members.
Lucidchart does not provide nudges that encourage your end-users to use new technologies, and it is not well-suited to product adoption or digital transformation.
of months.
3) safeguards a business against SaaS and technology waste
The average organization spends 29% of its SaaS budget on idle licenses and subscriptions. At $8,580 spent per employee per year, a company with 200 employees loses $1.7 million annually on SaaS.
With a technology roadmap, it is possible to answer (in detail) for what, why, and how each new SaaS subscription is required.
Read More: The Future of Microsoft Technology Trends
Stay Connected!