Like business plans, product roadmaps can be unreliable, inaccurate, or just plain off the mark. But they can also be useful in determining where a vendor is headed with certain products or which directions they plan to pursue in the future.

Usually considered marketing documents, product roadmaps are sometimes ignored by those in the industry, who might think such plans are meant for analysts and other market observers. Although they should be seen from an informational perspective, rather than one involving budgets and planning, the roadmaps do merit some attention.

Business and IT consultant Ted Demopoulos says, "Roadmaps can be useful in showing an idealized product evolution plan."



Taking Notice

Product roadmaps can take a variety of forms, from a general announcement about strategy to step-by-step implementation plans. They're produced by many industry leaders but also by smaller vendors that are seeking funding, new customers, or both.

One of the most-watched roadmap makers is Microsoft, which releases periodic updates on the company's potential strategy and product moves. Because Microsoft is so widely used in the corporate world, it would benefit IT managers to at least glance through these announcements.

Rob Helm, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft, says that Microsoft is clear in some areas and notoriously vague in others. "Windows Server has a reasonably clear roadmap," he says. "But other roadmaps aren't as well-defined, like the Exchange messaging group."

He believes that IT departments should watch these roadmaps to understand where Microsoft is trying to go. "It gives you an idea of what Microsoft is going to keep investing in," says Helm, adding as an example that the company has a number of technologies for writing applications that display forms to a user. Helm notes, "Not all of these are going to live forever. If your company is doing something with one of these technologies, you're going to have to listen to what Microsoft says about them."

Research firm Gartner echoes Helm's advice. In a recent report, it noted that Microsoft has announced a range of new initiatives it plans to pursue, including messaging technologies, expansion of the Windows client, and a fresh focus on small and midsized business applications and infrastructure.

Gartner's recommendation for Microsoft customers is to evaluate the company's product roadmaps for 2005 and 2006 in these areas. The report notes, "Then determine whether you want to invest in a best-of-breed provider today or wait for Microsoft to deliver its own offerings."

As with Microsoft, other technology providers that create roadmaps can provide valuable glimpses into their future plans. Demopoulos says, "Roadmaps are very useful in helping to evaluate products. Sometimes a product's planned evolution can run counter to an organization's internal plans." He added that keeping an eye on roadmaps while weighing long-term strategies is a smart combination for IT departments and can keep them from heading in a direction that will be unsupported by vendors in a few years.



When To Skip It

Although some roadmaps give valuable insight into a company's future plans, there are times when companies are simply announcing a general direction or expressing interest in certain technologies. This is when IT departments should wait for more concrete details before using roadmaps to make purchasing decisions, says Demopoulos.

"Roadmaps will sometimes contain popular directions, with no actual plan in place," he notes. "This means they're waiting for market confirmation." Examples would be mention of larger technologies, such as XML integration or Web Services support.

Companies that put these broad technology directives into roadmaps are usually pondering how to integrate these strategies into what's already in place and giving employees and analysts a heads-up in case more specifics get hammered out later.

Smaller firms in particular may have volatile roadmaps that are designed to spark interest in the company. In its advice to entrepreneurs creating roadmaps, the venture capital firm Woodside Fund notes, "Roadmaps are always subject to change," especially by investors that want to tinker with strategy based on market research.

Demopoulos adds that customers need to realize a product's actual evolution will rarely follow a roadmap exactly, which means that if technology is mentioned in only a general way, it shouldn't factor into an IT department's plans.

Even if a company includes specifics, though, customers need to be cautious when looking at roadmaps and understand that until it rolls off the production line or is officially introduced, plans can change. "The more detailed a roadmap is, the more likely that external forces will cause some variance from the plan," says Demopoulos.

Because of the volatility, IT departments shouldn't use roadmaps as their only source of planning when evaluating vendors. But they should definitely keep reading those maps to avoid any unpleasant surprises in the future.

by Elizabeth Millard