Targets, progress and status

Product / programme roadmap

Shows intended initiatives or outcomes over strategic planning periods.

Diagram
Planning
Schedule

What it answers

What initiatives are intended for each planning period?

Shape: Initiative blocks across time bands
What it shows: Sequence, overlap and planning coverage.

Example

The question

What will each team deliver over the next year?

Product roadmap, 2026 to 2027 by quarter

Three team rows across four quarters. Mobile: new checkout (Q4 to Q1), offline mode (Q2 to Q3). Web: search (Q4), accounts (Q1 to Q2). Data: customer 360 (Q4 to Q2), forecasts (Q3).

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

Strategic planning at appropriate precision.

Avoid it when

Treating indicative quarters as fixed delivery dates.

How to read it

Read time windows, theme and commitment labels.

Note

Distinguish commitments from indicative windows.

The data you need

Layout: Wide task table
Fields: InitiativeID: text; Initiative: text; StartPeriod,EndPeriod: date or ordered planning period
One row is: One initiative and its intended planning window. What is the grain?
Rules: Define period ordering and precision. Separate indicative windows from committed dates.
Optional: Theme,Owner,Status,Confidence or outcome description.
Preparation: Validate the input grain and missing values. Define period ordering and precision. Separate indicative windows from committed dates.
Units: Relationships and positions have no numeric unit by default. Label any counts, durations, probabilities or weights separately.

A wide table: one row per item, with a separate column for each measure or period.

Worked example

Research in Q1; Portal in Q2-Q3. The roadmap indicates intended windows, not an exact committed launch date.

InitiativeID	Initiative	StartPeriod	EndPeriod
I1	Customer research	2026-Q1	2026-Q1
I2	New portal	2026-Q2	2026-Q3

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