Architecture Roadmaps
Sequencing change across an estate with dependencies and funding.
4 to work through
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intermediate
An architecture roadmap covering three years is invalidated within six months by a change in product direction. How should roadmaps be built under uncertainty?
2 min answer -
advanced
A CTO commits to a three-year architecture roadmap with named platforms, sequencing and a funded programme, in exchange for board approval of the budget. What has been gained, what has been given up, and when does that bill arrive?
3 min answer -
advanced
A target-state architecture was signed off 18 months ago - 9 named platform components, a 3-year sequence, £11m funded. Since then two of the nine products have been discontinued by their vendors, the team named as owner of the integration layer has been reorganised out of existence, and the event backbone has been live for a year with 2 of its 14 planned producers. The programme continues to execute against the original document. What happens over the next 12 months?
3 min answer -
advanced
How would you sequence a two-year modernisation so that cancelling it after six months still leaves the organisation better off?
2 min answer
3 terms in this topic
Architecture Roadmap
A sequenced plan of architectural change expressed as capability outcomes and decision points rather than as a fixed timeline of projects.
practiceRoadmapping
Sequencing architectural change so that each step delivers value and is safe to stop after — rather than planning a destination nobody reaches.
conceptTarget-State Decay
The rate at which an approved target architecture stops being correct - mostly for organisational reasons rather than technical ones - and the reason…
Neighbouring topics
Enterprise Architecture
General material on architecture at portfolio and estate scale.
EA Domains
Business, application, data and technology architecture as viewpoints.
Application Architecture
The application estate as a designed portfolio rather than an accumulation.
Technology Architecture
Platforms, runtimes and infrastructure standards across the estate.
Capability Maps in EA
The stable frame for hanging investment, ownership and health off.
Application Portfolio Management
Inventory, ownership, cost and health for every application.
Application Rationalisation
Retire, consolidate, replatform — and why retirement is under-applied.
Technology Standards
Guidance that teams follow because it helps, not because it is mandated.
Technology Radar
Adopt, trial, assess and hold — with movement, dates and owners.
Reference Architectures
Pre-approved templates for recurring solution shapes.
Architecture Governance
Preventive, automated controls rather than review meetings.
Architecture Review Boards
Thresholds, early engagement and a real route to accept deviation.
Enterprise Integration
Estate-wide integration strategy, standards and shared infrastructure.
TOGAF
The ADM as a checklist, tailored rather than followed literally.
EA Frameworks
Zachman, FEAF and others — vocabulary rather than method.
Paved Roads
Making the supported path the easiest path, with a way to leave it.
Platform Teams
Reducing other teams' cognitive load, measured by adoption.
InnerSource
Open-source collaboration practices applied inside an organisation.
EA Metrics
Measuring whether architecture work changed anything.