I’d like to start off this post with the following excerpt from the ProductPlan website. I think it sets the stage of things quite nicely:
“We’re agile, so why do we need a long-term product roadmap?” I hear this question regularly. At first blush, the terms agile and product roadmap seem like a contradiction, but they’re not. In fact, you should have an agile product roadmap.
In most agile product development organizations, the backlog is used by the development team to track what’s coming next, at least for the next few sprints or iterations. Many agile teams rely heavily on the backlog, as it maps out short-term initiatives. But the backlog in itself is not the roadmap. This post explains why you need both.
Product Roadmap vs. Backlog
A product roadmap is different from a backlog. The roadmap defines a strategic view of where the product is headed over the mid to long term, whereas the backlog defines the product features and initiatives for the near term. The roadmap is tied to the organization’s vision and strategic goals, often for the next 12 or more months. In an agile organization, the roadmap provides guidance rather than a strict project plan.
I also sometimes equate the word Portfolio with Product Roadmap. In my mind, the two are quite synonymous.