Discovery roadmap template: milestones, estimates and critical path

A software project roadmap written at the end of discovery is a table of milestones, each with dates, an effort range, dependencies and linked requirements, along with stated assumptions. It differs from a product roadmap, which covers strategic themes over quarters or years, while the discovery version stays concrete and covers the first release or two. The article recommends a seven-column table, with milestones named by the result they produce and tracked with a status column once building begins. Two checks help catch gaps: confirming every requirement maps to a milestone, and splitting any milestone that holds most of the effort. Finally, the critical path, the longest chain of dependent milestones, is identified because delays on it directly push back the release.