Platform Roadmap Planning

Who this is for

• Aspiring and current Data Platform Engineers who must plan platform evolution, not just build components.
• Tech leads and data architects aligning teams, budgets, and timelines across data initiatives.
• Product-minded engineers who want a repeatable, lightweight planning process.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of data platform components: ingestion, storage, processing (batch/stream), catalog, orchestration, quality, governance, observability.
• Ability to estimate work and discuss trade-offs with stakeholders.
• Comfort writing short, clear technical documents.

Why this matters

Platform Roadmap Planning turns scattered requests into a focused, time-phased plan that delivers reliable, secure capabilities. In real roles, you'll be asked to:

• Sequence foundational work (e.g., data catalog, lineage, quality) before advanced features.
• Balance business outcomes (real-time analytics) with constraints (cost, risk, capacity).
• Communicate clear Now-Next-Later plans, KPIs/OKRs, and trade-offs to leadership.
• Coordinate migrations, deprecations, and adoption plans across multiple teams.

Concept explained simply

A platform roadmap is a living agreement about what capabilities the platform will deliver, when, and why. It groups work into outcomes and sequences them to reduce risk and maximize value. It avoids listing every task; it shows the story of capability maturity.

Mental model

• North Star: the platform’s promise (e.g., “trusted, self-serve data in under 5 minutes”).
• Guardrails: non-negotiables (security, reliability, cost boundaries).
• Themes: capability clusters (e.g., Ingestion, Governance, Observability, Experience).
• Waves: time buckets (Now-Next-Later or Q1–Q4).
• Feedback loop: measure adoption, quality, and cost; adjust quarterly.

Key artifacts and cadence

• Platform Charter: purpose, scope, guardrails, decision principles.
• Capability Heatmap: current vs target maturity (0–3 scale) across key areas.
• Initiative Backlog: scored by value vs effort (RICE works well).
• Roadmap: Now-Next-Later or quarterly waves for 6–12 months; 2–3 year horizon at a high level.
• KPIs/OKRs: adoption, lead time, data quality, cost per workload, incident rate.
• Communication Plan: monthly updates, quarterly reviews, changelog.
• Deprecation/Migration Plan: who moves when; sunset dates; support model.

Worked examples

Example 1: From ad-hoc ETL to a governed lakehouse

• North Star: One trusted catalog; pipelines observable; data quality gates.
• Now (0–3 months): central catalog, standardized ingestion templates, basic quality checks on top-10 datasets.
• Next (3–6 months): orchestration consolidation, lineage, CI/CD for pipelines.
• Later (6–12 months): data sharing patterns, self-serve onboarding, cost optimization.
• KPIs: % datasets with quality checks, pipeline MTTR, catalog coverage.

Example 2: Enabling near real-time analytics

• Theme: Streaming.
• Now: managed messaging backbone, patterns for CDC and event schemas.
• Next: stream processing runtime, streaming data quality, SLAs/SLOs.
• Later: unified batch/stream serving, autoscaling, backfill strategy.
• Risks: schema drift, consumer versioning. Mitigation: schema registry and compatibility rules.

Example 3: Reliability and cost program

• Now: pipeline SLIs/SLOs, incident workflow, cost showback dashboards.
• Next: storage tiering policies, workload rightsizing, retry/backoff standards.
• Later: automated guardrails (budgets, quotas), unit-cost targets per domain.

Build your platform roadmap in 7 steps

1. Clarify outcomes
   Write 3–5 outcome statements tied to business value (e.g., “Cut analyst wait time from 2 days to 2 hours”).
2. Assess current state
   Score each capability 0–3. Note bottlenecks and risks.
3. Define guardrails
   Set standards for security, governance, SLOs, and cost boundaries.
4. Generate initiatives
   List initiatives per theme (Ingestion, Governance, Observability, Experience).
5. Score and sequence
   Use RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and dependency mapping. Create Now-Next-Later.
6. Plan adoption
   Pick pilot teams, write onboarding guide, define support model.
7. Track and iterate
   Set KPIs, review monthly; adjust quarterly.

Exercises

Complete the exercises below. Everyone can take them; logged-in users will see saved progress.

• Exercise 1 mirrors a typical quarterly planning workshop.
• Exercise 2 helps you prioritize initiatives objectively.

After finishing, use this checklist:

• I wrote 3–5 outcomes linked to business goals.
• I scored current capabilities and named top risks.
• I created a Now-Next-Later with clear dependencies.
• I defined 3–5 KPIs to track improvement.

Exercise 1: Draft a Now-Next-Later roadmap

See the exercise block below for the full prompt and solution.

Exercise 2: Score initiatives with RICE

See the exercise block below for the full prompt and solution.

Common mistakes

• Feature lists instead of outcomes: focus on capabilities and adoption, not tools.
• Ignoring dependencies: quality/governance often must precede self-serve analytics.
• Overloading Now: leave capacity for incidents and discovery (20–30% buffer).
• No adoption plan: pilots, documentation, and office hours matter.
• No clear KPIs: agree how success is measured before starting.

Self-check

• Can you explain why each initiative is in its wave?
• Do 2–3 KPIs improve if the roadmap succeeds?
• Can a new team onboard using your plan within two weeks?

Practical projects

• Create a 1-page Platform Charter with guardrails and decision principles.
• Build a Capability Heatmap (0–3) and highlight top-3 gaps.
• Publish a Now-Next-Later roadmap and a one-page Adoption Plan for a pilot domain.

Mini challenge

In 60 minutes, write a two-page roadmap for a company moving from nightly batch to hourly insights. Include outcomes, Now-Next-Later, key risks, and three KPIs. Keep it to under 600 words.

Learning path

• Before: Architecture fundamentals (ingestion, processing, governance).
• Now: Platform Roadmap Planning (this lesson).
• Next: Data product onboarding, platform reliability (SLOs), cost governance.

Next steps

• Run a 90-minute workshop with stakeholders to validate your roadmap.
• Set monthly KPI reviews and publish a changelog for roadmap updates.
• Prepare a deprecation plan for legacy pipelines and tools.

Progress and saving

Anyone can read the lesson, do exercises, and take the test. If you log in, your exercise notes and test results will be saved so you can pick up where you left off.

Quick Test

When you’re ready, take the quick test below to check your understanding.