How to make the Perfect Agile Road-map
A road-map may be the most intuitive, simple step, yet it is perhaps the most vital of the steps in the Agile process. A road-map, simply stated, is basically the how-to on reaching the end product or deliverable set to be created. It includes all the major benchmarks of the project such that the progress being made can be fully gauged.
Road-map Tools:
Using the correct road-map tools can separate you from failure or success. Your road-map tool should have the following key aspects:
- It should be easy to update
- It should not be static in nature (like a PowerPoint or Excel sheet)
- It should be user friendly
Whatever tool you decide to choose it should not be something so complex that you need to hire a separate expert. Rather, your tools should be easily workable by all members of the team so that they can update the project plan whenever any changes occur.
Going into a project, it is unrealistic to expect that no changes will need to be made and the initial plan will be followed to a T. Road-map tools help to improve your flexibility throughout the duration of the project.
Visually Appealing Road-map
A road-map should be visually appealing to all stakeholders, especially your client. To do this several points should be kept in mind:
- Use colours and colour coding
- Use large fonts
- Focus on main aspects, not minute details
Strategic Justification
It is important to note that a road-map is not just a way to display your product’s feature list. Instead, your road-map should include clear and convincing reasons as to why you are choosing to carry out a project in a particular way.
This greatly improves the strategic thinking of the team, because they need appropriate justifications about why a particular set of tasks is being followed.
Frequent Updates and Reviews
If you do, in fact, have a proper non-static road-map tool, then frequent updates and reviews are an absolute necessity. Failing to regularly update your road-map could lead to problems. This includes a lack of coordination among all members of your team.
Importance of a Road-map
Frequent updates can prevent team members from having outdated information, and can better emphasise the project’s progress and activities being done to achieve those goals. Some reasons for the importance of Agile road-maps are outlined below.
- A road-map’s main aim is to accomplish one of the core values of the Agile methodology: Transparency. If road-maps are done correctly, then all concerned stakeholders are aware in changes to the project in real-time. This transparency helps outline which parts of the project are going according to plan and which are in fluctuation.
- Frequent communication is suggested by sharing your road-map online with the entire project management team. Progress made by any team member should be added to the road-map in real-time so that all members of the team can see the steps being taken to accomplish the end product. This technique bypasses a lot of old road blocks and drastically decreases the probability of crossed wires which happens often, especially in large scale projects.
- Agile road-maps greatly facilitate planning all activities required to achieve the final deliverable. The making of an Agile road-map forces to team members to think out of the box and become more innovative in order to keep up with the current project’s process. This helps the team to remain flexible and to adapt to fast-paced changes that keep occurring during the course of an ongoing project.
- An agile product road-map serves as a navigation tool for the entire team. The team is aware of all the goals that are high priority and put their focus on more important tasks first, and then move on to less important tasks later.
An Agile road-map is the cornerstone of any successful team. By creating a perfect Agile road-map, your chances of moving forward at a quicker pace increases, as does your success rate.
