Roadmapping Overview

Professor John Hosking

Centre for Software Innovation & Department of Computer Science

john@cs.auckland.ac.nz

Never ignore Dilbert …

Technology Roadmapping

• Range of techniques for doing strategic planning• Aim is to relate technologies (available and to be

developed) through to market needs– Usually time dimension incorporated for planning

• Many sorts/specialisations of roadmapping– Product, capability, process, knowledge asset,

integration ….

• Many diagrammatic/documentation formats– Pictorial, multi-layer,

single-layer, bar charts, graphs, …

Types of roadmap

From: Kappel

Roadmap categories

From: http://www.albrightstrategy.com/framework.html

Generic TRM diagram

From http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkhtml&contentId=1550279&dType=SUB&history=false

What’s the point of doing it?

• Relate technologies to products you want to develop and identified market needs

• Identify technologies you’ll need so R&D better focussed

• Understand better what technologies you have available and what they could be used for– Creates transparency– Encourages good knowledge management

• Use to identify R&D outsourcing/partnering– What don’t you want to have to develop that

you need

Technology Push and Market Pull

History

From Phaal: Fast start technology roadmapping

Examples

From: Vähäniitty, et al

Examples

From http://www.onr.navy.mil/gms/example.asp

Examples

From http://www.onr.navy.mil/gms/example.asp

Examples

Examples

Examples

From: http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/FY96Plan/Chap2d.html

Examples

From: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/manufacturing/solutions/lean.mspx

Roadmapping Process

TRM Process

• Look at two techniques to assist– Spidercharts

• Initial cut very lightweight tool

– Fast start Technology Roadmapping• Ex Cambridge U• Lightweight TRM process

• Will use a running example to illustrate– Meta tool platform and applications under

development in CSI

How good are you currently?

• Spidercharts are good for a quick product technology reality check

• Very similar to Strategy Canvas

From: BalmSignificant market need

Your product

Competitor product

Changes over time

MaramaMTE

• Performance engineering tool– Estimation of application performance directly from

software architecture specification• Customer requirements

– Accuracy of prediction– Variety of deployment technologies (.NET, J2EE, …)– Simple architecture specification – what if modelling– Automated test bed deployment– Standard representations– Integration with other SE tools– Realistic test load specification– Reverse engineering support

• Competitor– Performance estimation tool from NICTA

Arch spec End usermodel spec

MaramaMTE Spiderchart

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1Accuracy of prediction

Variety of deployment technologies (.NET,J2EE, …)

Simple architecture specification – what ifmodelling

Automated test bed deployment

Standard representations

Integration with other SE tools

Realistic test load specification

Reverse engineering support

MTENICTA

Exercise

• Pick a product you know reasonably well Identify up to 8 significant customer requirements

• Select a competitor product• Construct a spiderchart for your product against market

and competitor• What does this tell you about your product's competitive

advantage and areas of deficiency?• What are the priorities of the requirements?

• Time: 5 minutes– make it rough and ready

TRM preliminaries

• Decide what you are roadmapping– Product, platform, market sector, …

• Get SMT buy in• Assemble a cross disciplinary team• Appoint an owner• Schedule sessions with time between for

research

Cambridge Fast Start TRM Process

• See: Phaal et al Fast-Start Technology Roadmapping• Relatively lightweight process• Standard method is for integrated product-technology

strategic planning• Can be readily adapted for other types of roadmap• Three major elements:

– Mapping market needs to product features– Mapping technologies to product features– Constructing roadmap

• Four workshops:– Market -> Product -> Technology -> Roadmap

Major elements

Running Example

• CSI metatools programme• What’s a metatool?

– Set of tools that support rapid specification and implementation of other tools

– Often used to develop domain specific visual languages for:

• Configuration tasks (eg frameworks, software product lines)– Eg our Eclipse meta tool, other MDE products

• More easily implementing specialised tasks– Eg Our performance estimation tool

• End user oriented task specification– Eg Orion Mapper, XSol process spec tool

– One element in broader Model Driven Engineering approach to software development

Metatool use

Fast Start TRM workshops

From: Phaal et al

Workshop 1

• Establish prioritised future business/market drivers• Start with ‘performance dimensions’ (eg speed, weight, reliability,

aesthetics)• Step up to business/market drivers (customer/business motivators)• Group and prioritise• Summarise in spider charts and tables (cf exercise 1)• Event maps (major trends plus sticky note drivers) are useful too• Also SWOT etc• Look for gaps

Metatool drivers• Market

– Time to develop generated tool– Ease of tool specification– Ease of generated tool use– Ease of installation– Wide range of tool metaphors– Ease of tool integration– Metatool reliability– Generated tool reliability– Generated tool ubiquitously available– Generates to range of platforms– Ability to collaborate

• Business– Time to develop metatool– Cost of maintenance– Reusability of components

Exercise

• Construct a quick prioritised market driver list for a product you are familiar with

• Consider ‘performance dimensions’• Step up to business/market drivers

(customer/business motivators)• Rough and ready• Allow 5 minutes

Workshop 2

• Establish product feature concepts to satisfy drivers– a level down from performance dimensions

• Use eg mind maps to brainstorm possible features• Use a grid to evaluate relationships between drivers and

features• Group features and rank impact for each market driver• Consider alternative product strategies to meet combinations• Look for gaps

Metatools market-product grid (simplified) May be

multiplePrioritisation (out of 10) 10 7 6 5 8 7 9 10 6 4 8 10 8 7 Market/Business Drivers

Product FeatureConcepts

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1. Simple visual metaphors 3 4 1 1 1 1 7.32. Range of visual elements 2 4 4 -1 -1 4.03. Robust implementation platform 1 1 1 3 3 1 2 3 10.04. Powerful behaviour specn 3 2 2 4 1 2 -1 1 8.45. Model transformation support 2 3 1 1 5 1 1 1 -2 -1 1 6.76. Code Generation support 2 3 2 3 1 2 -1 -1 1 6.27. Thin/mobile interface 1 1 1 4 2 1 -1 -1 3.28. Sketch/voice interface 2 1 3 1 -1 -1 1.89. Standards based 1 2 1 2 3.010. Integrated with common platform 1 3 2 2 -1 1 3 2 1 9.311. Modelling element libraries 2 1 1 1 -1 3 3.912. Collaboration support 1 1 5 -1 -1 1 3.5

Exercise

• Construct a quick market-product grid for the product you chose in prev exercise

• Quick list of product features• Construct grid (don’t worry about

maths/normalising for now)• Rough and ready• Allow 5-10 minutes

Workshop 3

• Establish technology solns that could deliver the required features

• Use eg mindmaps to establish/document possible technologies• Group technologies into areas or routes• Use a grid to evaluate relationships between the technologies

and product features• Rank technologies for impact on features• Look for gaps

Metatoolsproduct-tech grid

From prevgrid

8.7 4.0 10.0 8.4 6.7 6.2 3.2 1.8 3.0 9.3 3.9 3.5 Product Feature Concepts

Technology Areas

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Core modeller platformEclipse/EMF/GEF 3 4 2 2 3 5 2 3 10.0

Visual studio 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 7.6Java/Swing 4 3 1 3.2

Argo 2 2 1 1 2 1 3.6Metamodeling notations

UML based -1 1 2 1 2 2 2.2Pounamu based 3 2 3 1 1 4.8

Constraint implementationOCL 1 2 1 1 2 1 3.3

Java event handlers 3 2 1 3.0Model trans/code generation

VML+ based 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 5.2ATL based 1 3 2 1 2 1 1 3.8JET based 1 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 4.6

Integration/collaborationService based 2 1 2 1 1 3 2.5

Repository based 1 1 2 1 1 2.1Thin/mobile client

MUPE 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 3.1Laszlo 2 2 1 1 3 1 2 1 4.4

Ajax/DHTML 2 1 3 2 1 1 2.7Silverlight 2 2 4 1 1 1 3.4

Voice recognition tech 3 0.4Sketch recognition tech 3 0.4

Exercise

• Construct a quick feature-technology grid for the product line in previous exercise

• List of product features and prioritisations from prev exercise

• Quick list of technologies• Construct grid (don’t worry about

maths/normalising for now)• Rough and ready• Allow 5-10 minutes

Workshop 4

• Construct the initial roadmap drawing market and technology drivers together

• The features, technologies, categories in the grid provide the roadmap language

• Use time scales levels, product strategies (eg platforms)• Key milestones, product evolution, technology

programmes plotted and linked• Identify gaps for outsourcing/partnerships

Metatools Example

• Have simplified somewhat• Fast TRM typically has product features

– – I’ve used product groups

• Have collapsed some of the Technology areas• Resources would typically include:

– Capability needs (new staff etc)– Development methodologies/toolsets needed

• Upskilling/training requirements

• Need cost estimates, responsibilities etc

Market/business

ProductGroups

Tech Areas

visual metaphors/elements

platform/architecture

behaviour specn

model transformation /code gen

thin/mobile interface

sketch/voice interface

collaboration support

R&D

Resources

Pounamu

MaramaCore Modeller

BasicMarama

MetaModeller

2005 2006 2007

MetaModeller +

modelConstraints

Marama +Model

Constraints &Transform

Marama +Visual

Constraints

New metatoolnotations

In Pounamu

VML+ inPounamu

VML+notation

Eclipse GEF/EMF/JET

Meta modelConstraint

notation

Core ModellerArchitecture

OCL event handler

MaramaSketch

Design/implnMarama

DifferDesign/impln

Marama ToruaModel transformation

Kaitiaki inMarama implmn

Kaitiakinotation

Laszlo Thin clientProtoype

Integrated eventmetamodel

Laszlo Voice techSketchPackage

EclipseOCL

Pounamu DifferAlgorithm

ViTABaLnotation

ASE Paper ICSE Paper

Exercise

• Construct a quick roadmap for the product line in previous two exercises

• Think about timescales, order, groupings, products

• Construct roadmap• Rough and ready• Do after class as an exercise

Evolution/maintenance

• Technology roadmaps are not static• Must update regularly if they are to be useful• Ownership important

– Provides someone tasked to instigate updates

• For software need at least annual updates– Need to watch out for left field technologies

appearing

• Need for drill down docn support

Reflections: from Kappel

• Kappel has many other excellent observations on•Metrics for assessing roadmapping•Good practices to observe•Observational studies on usefulness

Roadmapping tools

• Alignent Vision Strategist – www. alignent.com– Based on Motorola approach to roadmapping

• GMS tool – www.onr.navy.mil/gms/gms.asp– Free tool from US Military

• Roadmap templates – e.g. www.280group.com/productroadmaptemplates.htm– Various PPT/Excel templates for roadmapping

• I use spreadsheets and Powerpoint or Visio

Vision Strategist

GMS

280 Group Templates

Wrap up