---
sourceDocument: Australia Strategic Portfolio Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/it-business-management

 Release :

    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Strategic Portfolio Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itbm

bundleId :

    - itbm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Roadmaps in Strategic Planning

# Roadmaps in Strategic Planning {#ariaid-title1}

* Release version: Australia
* 
* Updated March 12, 2026
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 4 minutes to read

Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Roadmaps in Strategic Planning

Roadmaps in Strategic Planning Workspace enable organizations to visually plan and prioritize work in alignment with business objectives.
This flexibility allows for easy adjustments to existing plans as priorities evolve.
Roadmaps serve as high-level overviews for various planning personas, facilitating communication and understanding among stakeholders while guiding delivery teams during development.
Show full answer Show less  

## Key Features

* **Portfolio Plan Roadmaps:** Create flexible portfolio plans using lenses to prioritize and track work across different organizational perspectives.
* **Free-form Roadmaps:** Plan and track work from various units, defining specific filter conditions to focus on relevant work items.
* **Hybrid Roadmaps:** Combine elements from both portfolio and free-form roadmaps for a comprehensive view of projects, demands, and epics.
* **Milestones:** Establish roadmap-level and planning item milestones to track important dates and events.
* **Planning Item Dependencies:** Visualize connections between planning items to optimize scheduling and prioritization.
* **Tracking Mode:** Monitor the status and progress of roadmap items to facilitate informed decision-making.
* **Alignment with Business Goals:** Associate planning items with high-level business goals to ensure work aligns with organizational objectives.

## Key Outcomes

By using roadmaps, organizations can enhance collaboration, improve decision-making, and ensure that their work aligns with strategic priorities. The integration of ServiceNow® Digital Portfolio Management with Strategic Planning further optimizes portfolio performance and supports informed budgeting and resource allocation.  
Strategically plan work for your company using visual roadmaps in Strategic Planning Workspace.

As your organization grows and priorities change, it's important to have the flexibility of changing existing plans and making new plans with ease. Using roadmaps, you can create a layout of current and upcoming plans
while aligning them with your business objectives. Share these visual plans with other stakeholders across the organization, drive meaningful conversations, and validate common understandings.

Each roadmap is a high-level block of work, prioritized by different planning personas such as enterprise project managers, portfolio managers, project managers, or others. Roadmaps also provide insights to the
stakeholders while guiding the delivery teams during development.  
The following are the types of roadmaps that you can work with:

* Portfolio plan roadmaps
* Free-form roadmaps
{#roadmap-planning-overview__ul_uln_pgz_5wb}  
The features available in these roadmaps are:

* Hybrid roadmaps
* Roadmap-level milestones
* Planning item-level milestones
* Planning item dependencies
* Tracking mode
{#roadmap-planning-overview__ul_uzq_wgz_5wb}  
Note:  
Roadmaps are available with Strategic Planning by default. Roadmap Planning (sn_roadmap_plng) is no longer available to install as a separate application.

## Portfolio plan roadmaps {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_s21_hrb_2qb}

By creating a flexible portfolio plan using lenses, you can prioritize and roadmap work for your portfolio. Use these portfolio roadmaps to plan and track work in different perspectives of the organization separately,
while connecting them to the high-level plans of the company.

[Create a portfolio plan](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Bi~Zcpp1rVrEFnuES9Lf2g "Use lens and build a personalized portfolio plan in Strategic Planning Workspace so that you can start to prioritize and align work.") to get started. You can view and edit your roadmap in both Roadmap and Kanban
tabs.  
Figure 1. Roadmap tab  
Figure 2. Kanban tab

## Free-form roadmaps {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_n5n_hrb_2qb}

Free-form roadmaps provide you the flexibility of planning and tracking work from different units of your company, such as work across multiple portfolios.

Using a filter condition, you can define what kind of work items you want on your roadmap. If you want to have a roadmap dedicated to just the projects of your department, define a roadmap for projects to start tracking
the progress of current projects and create plans for new ones.

You can view and edit your free-form roadmap in both Timeline and Kanban
views.

See [Create a free-form roadmap](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/WLUfI7~XPGrhrAcQV8Kf_A "Create a standalone visual roadmap to start high-level planning of work from different units of the company.").

## Hybrid roadmaps {#roadmap-planning-overview__id_qzl_y41_jqb}

In Strategic Planning, with both the portfolio roadmaps and free-form
roadmaps, you can build hybrid roadmaps. For example, you can have a combination of
projects, demands, and epics in a single view.

## Milestones on the roadmap {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_mjx_b5l_4rb}

You can create milestones for your roadmap, or for each planning item on the roadmap.  

Roadmap-level or portfolio-level milestones

:   The milestones created at the roadmap level can help with tracking launch dates or key events during that roadmap's timeline. To learn how to create roadmap milestones, see [Add milestones for a roadmap](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Uu22EqUeAOLgMlOV7QzDuA "Track key dates of your plan's timeline by creating milestones and displaying them on the roadmap.").

Planning item milestones

:   Using the milestones created at the item level, you can focus better on strategic outcomes. These milestones help with tracking deadlines or other important dates. You can access milestones on all the planning items such as projects,
    demands, epics, and others.

    From the roadmap, milestones can be created and updated for all types of planning items, except on projects. Project milestones are read-only on the roadmap because any changes to project milestones may impact the
    associated project plans. So, it is recommended to create or update project milestones using Project Workspace in Project Portfolio Management (PPM).

    To learn how to create item-level milestones on a roadmap, see [Add milestones for roadmap items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Vp37GKiSia8LyqO~57c~8w "Track key outcomes of your planning items (such as demands, epics, or programs) by creating milestones for them, directly from the roadmap view.").

## Planning item dependencies {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_spl_34r_1tb}

While planning, it is essential to know how your planning items are connected with each
other. Unless you know the dependency for each item, you might miss prioritizing
time-critical projects or demands. This lack of information may also put you at risk of not
scheduling the right work for the right time period.

Dependencies on the roadmap help you visualize these relationships between the planning items, so that you can adjust their scheduling
accordingly.

In Strategic Planning, you can create simple or
hybrid dependencies. For example, you can establish dependencies between two projects or
between a project and an epic. Also, planning items can have dependency on items within the
same portfolio plan or on items that aren't planned yet.

The dependency lines help you easily identify the items that may have to be prioritized
together. Such easy identification of relationships between planning items provides better
collaboration and facilitates enhanced decision making in the planning process.

To learn about creating and managing dependencies, see [Add dependencies for roadmap items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/Aiy9znmUaX5uAXKlPlKylA "Create dependencies and visualize relationships between planning items of your portfolio or free-form roadmap, so that you can adjust their scheduling.").

## Tracking mode in roadmaps {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_kt5_4yl_4rb}

Track status, progress, and metrics for each item on the roadmap. Using the status
indicators and the percentage complete score on the planning item bars, make informed
decisions ahead of time and easily communicate your work progress to the stakeholders.

See [Track the progress of roadmap items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/MMnIWxEaujjREJkl3FM0hg "Visually track the completion of a work item on your portfolio plan roadmap or free-form roadmap using the tracking mode.").

## Alignment of your work with business goals {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_vmt_f3y_jrb}

Each planning item that you create and schedule into a roadmap can associate to high-level
business goals. Strategic Planning enables you to visualize how your work is
aligned to these business goals directly from the roadmap view.

On the roadmap, you can group your planning items by the Strategic priority and Primary goal fields so that you can map
your work to their goals.

## Better together with other ServiceNow® applications {#roadmap-planning-overview__section_fbf_hmp_2tb}

Integrate ServiceNow® Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) with Strategic Planning to provide DPM managers the access to roadmap planning. With this integration, you can:

* Optimize portfolio performance by monitoring services and their performance levels in a comprehensive roadmap.
* Make informed budgetary decisions and deliver shared outcomes by prioritizing backlogs and managing roadmaps of business applications.

{#roadmap-planning-overview__ul_nwf_crq_2tb}For more information, see [Exploring Digital Portfolio Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=dpm-explore-cfw&version=australia&pubname=australia-it-service-management&ft:locale=en-US).
**Related concepts**   

* [Planning roadmaps in Strategic Planning Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/TJWxJrpaQD_LY8ZHQkmDQg "Create a layout of the plans for upcoming projects or initiatives while aligning them with your business objectives using roadmaps in Strategic Planning Workspace. Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders and adjust plans on the go.")
* [Goal Framework and Goal Framework for SPM](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/jDZfefiFQeml_AmFLUyRJQ "Create goals, set targets for them, and evaluate the progress of the goals and targets to accomplish your organizational plans and drive business outcomes using ServiceNow Goal Framework.")