Bridging the Gap:
Why Integrated Roadmaps are the Future of Strategic Planning
The 2025 Gartner CIO and IT Leader Priorities and Responsibilities Survey reveals a striking paradox: while 73% of CIOs prioritise management of their organisation’s technology roadmaps, business roadmap and future plans, and 66% focusing on meeting stakeholder expectations, only 13% consider their organisations effective at responding to technology disruption.
This disconnect highlights a fundamental challenge in modern business strategy. In an era where business and technology strategies are so strongly connected, organisations cannot strategically plan effectively or respond to market shifts without having clearly aligned business and technology roadmaps.
1. The Importance of a Dynamic Business Roadmap
The emergence of AI has elevated the business roadmap from important to critical. Traditional methods such as static PowerPoint presentations or release schedules buried deep within project management tools, are inadequate for navigating today’s unpredictable business environment. Organisations now need dynamic, adaptive roadmap frameworks that evolve alongside the rapidly changing market conditions. Sometimes, the simplest and most effective approach involves stepping away from complicated tools altogether. Getting key stakeholders from business and technology teams into a room for a with structure, pens, and sticky notes often provides the foundations for a cohesive and actionable business roadmap.
2. Scenario-Based Strategic Planning
A notable shortfall in current roadmapping practices is the absence of thematic and scenario-based options. Business roadmaps are too frequently presented as fixed paths offering no alternatives or contingencies. Ask yourself: How often have you seen a roadmap that transparently states, “This roadmap contains 50 initiatives over three years, but we have the capacity to complete only 20. We must prioritise based on outcomes and dependencies”? Candid strategic discussions like this are still surprisingly rare.
Effective scenario-based planning is complex and will usually require multiple workshops. However, the current global landscape demands planning for unexpected scenarios. Consider how many companies had contingency plans or strategic roadmaps prepared for the massive disruptions caused by COVID-19, or the economic impact of geopolitical factors such as tariff implementations. Very few organisations adequately prepared for these events.
3. A Business Roadmap is the Foundation for Strategic Alignment
Business roadmaps should serve as the cornerstone of all subsequent planning efforts. They must clearly articulate market drivers, internal capabilities, competitive dynamics, and risk factors. Yet, many organisations lack these foundational documents, partly due to a critical oversight in business education.
As Kostoff, Boylan, and Simons noted in their 2004 research, roadmapping has been “largely ignored in mainstream business school research and teaching, attributed to its association with technology-intensive sectors.” Consequently, many general managers remain unaware of how effectively roadmapping can address strategic challenges.
While MBA programmes cover strategic analysis extensively such as SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, and risk matrices, these frameworks often culminate in dense strategy documents rather than actionable roadmaps. This educational gap leaves roadmapping in the domain of technology teams, where it risks becoming overly technical, inaccessible, and disconnected from broader business goals.
Moreover, only 5% of stakeholders typically read detailed strategic plans. In contrast, a business roadmap serves as an accessible, visual representation of strategic intent, especially when interactive and succinct, making it vastly more effective than lengthy documents.
4. The Path Forward: Integrated Leadership and Planning
The solution demands unprecedented collaboration between business and technology leadership. Consider the CIO’s challenge: how can they craft a meaningful technology roadmap when the business roadmap is non-existent or hidden within lengthy documents?
The persistent disconnect between IT and business strategy often stems from something deceptively simple: the absence of aligned, integrated business roadmap understood and owned by both teams. Organisations that fail to address this fundamental gap will continue to face difficulties in strategic execution and technology-driven transformation.
Ultimately, effective roadmapping comes down to basics: encourage essential human interactions during the planning phase and utilise tools designed explicitly to communicate integrated technology and business roadmaps. Only then can executives fully understand and execute each other’s strategic visions.
If your organisation recognises the need to bridge the strategic disconnect between business and technology planning, Konexis is ready to support you.
Discover how Konexis can help your business build truly integrated roadmaps, where financial planning becomes integral to strategic execution. For a free demo book here.
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