Roadmapping

How this method works

A method for placing milestones towards a destination on a timeline and using dependencies to decide starting order. Use it when a list of measures is merely ordered, external conditions are mixed with the group's own capabilities, or deadlines remain wishes. Participants define completion evidence for the destination and place milestones in three rows: outcomes, required capabilities, and external conditions. They connect items that must finish first to items that start later, showing where progress requires a prerequisite to be met. The result is milestones over time, relationships, uncertain points, and first items with owners. Do not use it for project control promising detailed dates or effort, or where the destination itself has not been agreed.

Phase schedule

Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.

1. Define the destination0–10 minutes from the start (10 minutes)

   Action: Define. Participation: Everyone.

   Recording not separately specified for this phase

2. Propose milestones10–30 minutes from the start (20 minutes)

   Action: Propose. Participation: Individually.

   Individual record

3. Build the timeline30–50 minutes from the start (20 minutes)

   Action: Build. Participation: Groups of 3–6.

   Shared record

4. Connect dependencies50–75 minutes from the start (25 minutes)

   Action: Connect. Participation: Groups of 3–6.

   Shared record

5. Choose starting points75–90 minutes from the start (15 minutes)

   Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.

   Shared record

Facilitation steps

1. For 10 minutes, define the destination and target period in one sentence and write up to 2 pieces of completion evidence.
2. For 20 minutes, each person proposes up to 5 necessary milestones and marks cards as outcomes, capabilities, or external conditions.
3. For 20 minutes, in groups of 3–6, place cards in the three rows for outcomes, required capabilities, and external conditions in time order.
4. For 15 minutes, connect up to 12 pairs where one card must be completed before the next can proceed, and write the reason.
5. For 10 minutes, mark cards with unknown prerequisites and lines forming loops as uncertain, and add one missing-prerequisite card.
6. For 15 minutes, choose 2 items to start in the earliest period across all groups and write their owners, completion evidence, and review conditions.

If something changes

Preparation

Materials

• One three-row planning sheet per group for outcomes, required capabilities, and external conditions
• Five milestone cards per person, with a completion-evidence field
• Twelve relationship lines per group, with arrows
• Two uncertainty markers per person
• Two first-item slips per group, with an owner field
• One dark-coloured writing implement per person

Room and setup

• One island table per group of 3–6
• One three-row planning surface per group extending from the present to the destination
• One whole-group surface collecting first items and shared prerequisites

Adjust for people and time

Do not use the method with fewer than 4 people, as it is difficult to consider alternative relationships. Divide participant count by 6 and round up for the number of groups, then form groups of 3–6 differing by no more than 1 person. Each group brings 2 first items and 1 shared prerequisite to the whole-group surface, and adjust order only among items with the same owner.

Manuscript's recorded references

These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.

• Government Office for Science: Roadmapping

  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/futures-toolkit-for-policy-makers-and-analysts/the-futures-toolkit-html

  Adaptation under OGL 3.0; changes made

• OGL 3.0

  https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Diagram, print, and video language

Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.

English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.

The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.

Editorial provenance

Stable method ID

foresight-roadmapping

Japanese source status

Japanese source: editorially reviewed

Source path

src/content/methods/foresight-roadmapping.yaml

Source SHA-256

0730ac58882d2c166d7d96b0d19c88e8ea91b0b9c514b2561fd3b5c69ca0eb01

English text path

design-lab/drafts/english-site-20261015/batches/M-014-M-015-local-draft-20261017-1445/methods/foresight-roadmapping.json

English text SHA-256

9cfebaa3fcc5a0b8bb4ad2bebfe02d272e4e7a5c18ac3acb4633572e1effe5d5

Historical fixed-text English acceptance record

draft-not-independently-reviewed

Historical fixed-source recorded publication hold

Source-specific translation/reuse check pending

Original Japanese asset identifiers (not rendered here)

• main: foresight-roadmapping-main.svg
• print: foresight-roadmapping-print.svg
• thumb: foresight-roadmapping-thumb.svg

Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.