What can you learn here?
- Create roadmaps
- Presentation quality
- Learn roadmap options

Elsewhere on this site, I take you through the development of a roadmapper in Excel. Looking at the pattern of use, it seems that may visitors to this site just want a roadmapper to download and use (as opposed to following along with the creation of the VBA required to create one). This is a quick user guide for those that want to use the roadmapper right out of the box. I hope you find this free roadmapper tool useful – if so please +1 this site, join our forum, comment on the blog, follow me on Twitter etc. etc. If you show enough interest I will develop it further. You can download the Excel roadmapper here. Nowadays it’s in the cDataSet.xlsm workbook. There is also a Google Apps version.
Roadmap Example
Here is a roadmap created directly by the roadmap tool
- Data. The data format required by the roadmapper is very straightforward and compact
- Parameters. This is an Excel Sheet that describes the formatting and behavior of the roadmapper. There is a default roadmap parameter sheet in the downloadable example
Data Format
Columns values
- Activate. The date the item starts. A blank date means start from the beginning of the roadmap
- Deactivate. The date the item finishes. A blank date means continue to the end of the roadmap
- Description. Any text here will appear on the roadmap shape for this item.
- ID. Each item must have a unique ID of some sort. This is referenced by the target column.
- Target. If an item, or series of items transition to some other thing (the usual purpose of a roadmap is to show this transition), the the target should contain the ID of the item it will transition to. For example, in the example above, the mac and netbook transition to the iPad.
- Custom. The roadmapper has standard default behavior set up in your parameter sheet. However you may want to customize this behavior for some or all items. This will allow you to change formats and shapes and many other options.
- Cost. The roadmapper is capable of producing an attached chart that shows the cost of a roadmap over time. This optional field allows you to provide costs if you need them that will be used in the cost of ownership chart.
- Callout. Sometimes there is not enough room to describe an item, or you need to call them out for special attention. If you have some text here, a call out including that text will be created using the parameters selected in the custom field to position and format the callout.
- Sequence. The roadmap can be sorted vertically in a number of ways, selectable in the parameter sheet. One of them is to use the sequence field which you can fill with whatever you like if you need a particular order that cannot be achieved using the normal sort options.
Parameter Sheet
Container Block
Container parameters
- Left. Top, Width. These specify the placement and dimensions in pixels of the overall roadmap relative to the sheet it will be plotted on.
- Height. The height of a roadmap is determined automatically by its contents. The Height parameter is currently ignored, but in a future version will be used to scale all the objects on the roadmap to meet a target height
- Allow Expansion. Normally a ‘target’ will expand to accommodate all the items that are transitioning to it. If a target only has one item arriving, you may want to keep the target and the item the same size. Setting this to No will accomplish that. This is the default and can be overridden with a custom definition.
- Start at Notch. If you are using a chevron shape, or some other shape with a ‘tail’, this parameter allows you to fit them into each other. Setting this to Yes will accomplish that. This is the default and can be overridden with a custom definition.
- Data. This is the default container shape for a data item. You can set it to any of the valid shapes in the dropdown list.This is the default and can be overridden with a custom definition.
- Frame. This is the shape that goes round the entire roadmap. It has the same values as Data, above. You can also set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the frame. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
- Chart Ticks. As mentioned it is possible to create a cost of ownership chart. Right now this value only has one value – ‘same as roadmap’. In a future version this will allow a different granularity for the chart than the roadmap.
- Start Date, Finish Date. These are the dates that the roadmap should run from and to. If you select automatic, it will select suitable values based on the dates of the data and the tick scale selected.
- Ticks. This specifies the scale to use for ticks (dates to show along the top of the roadmap. If you select automatic it will choose something optimal based on the start and finish dates. You can also set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the frame. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
Options Parameter Block
Options values
- Ignore. If this value is found in the Target Column it is treated the same as blank, meaning this item has no target
- Separator. This value is used as a separator in the Target Column. For example if the value was “big,small,medium” and the separator was “,”, then “big” would be treated as the target.
- IgnoreEmptyID. All items require a unique ID. If this is set to yes, then rows with no ID are ignored, otherwise an error is flagged.
- Allow Custom. If No, then any data in the custom column is ignored. If yes, then the custom parameters referred to by the custom name are used for this item.
- Chart Style. This defines the type of chart to use for the supplemental cost of ownership chart.
- Chart Proportion. Defines the height of the cost of ownership chart as a %age of the size of the roadmap
- Chart Cost Treatment. This defines how to treat the cost that is shown in the Cost column when including a cost of ownership chart.
- Output Style. For now the only valid value is Roadmap. In a future version there will be the possibility of exporting to other systems and formats.
- Mode. To create a roadmap, the only valid value is “Standalone”. The roadmapper logic has been embedded into other worksheets, for example to create roadmaps from a database. In that case this parameter is to be used to modify the behavior of the roadmapper logic so it knows it is being used in an embedded way.
- Sort Target Population. It is possible to sort the roadmap so that the targets which attract the most items appear closest to the top or the bottom.
- Sort Bars by. This allows you to select which column to use to sort the shapes within their respective targets. Original means the order they appear on the sheet. Duration is the calculated elapsed time of the item.
- Sort Bar Order. This defines the order of ‘sort bars by’.

- Title. Will appear on the roadmap container.
- DataLocation. The name of the sheet that contains the input data
- Frameplot. The name of the sheet to write the roadmap to
- Respect Filter. Whether to respect any autofilter in place in the source data.
Custom Bars Parameter Block
Custom Bar values
- Custom Bar. The name by which to refer to this row in the custom column of your data
- Shape. The shape to assign to this item. Can be any of the known roadmapper shapes.
- Allow Expansion. Normally a ‘target’ will expand to accommodate all the items that are transitioning to it. If a target only has one item arriving, you may want to keep the target and the item the same size. Setting this to No will accomplish that.
- Gap. Space in pixels to allow vertically between shapes.
- Height. Height in pixels of the shape
- Start at Notch. If you are using a chevron shape, or some other shape with a ‘tail’, this parameter allows you to fit them into each other. Setting this to Yes will accomplish that.
- Chart Cost Treatment. This defines how to treat the cost that is shown in the Cost column when including a cost of ownership chart.
- Format. You can set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the shape. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
- Callout. This defines the shape to use as a callout for this item. None means no call out. Any known roadmapper shape can be used as a callout.
- Callout Position. This is the position relative to the shape, that the callout should be positioned at.
- Callout Format. You can set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the callout shape. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
- Callout % Height. The callout is placed this %age of the height of the item shape above it.
- Callout % Width. How wide to make the callout relative to the item shape.
Roadmap Colors Parameter Block
Roadmap Color values
- Roadmap Colors. One row for each of ‘current’, ‘recent’ and ‘old’.
- Format. You can set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the shape. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
- Decommission from/to. Any items that are deacrivated during the periods specified by these dates will be assigned the parameter values from this row.
- Shape. The shape to assign to this item. Can be any of the known roadmapper shapes.
- Allow Expansion. Normally a ‘target’ will expand to accommodate all the items that are transitioning to it. If a target only has one item arriving, you may want to keep the target and the item the same size. Setting this to No will accomplish that.
- Gap. Space in pixels to allow vertically between shapes.
- Height. Height in pixels of the shape
- Start at Notch. If you are using a chevron shape, or some other shape with a ‘tail’, this parameter allows you to fit them into each other. Setting this to Yes will accomplish that.
- Chart Cost Treatment. This defines how to treat the cost that is shown in the Cost column when including a cost of ownership chart.
- Callout. This defines the shape to use as a callout for this item. None means no call out. Any known roadmapper shape can be used as a callout.
- Callout Position. This is the position relative to the shape, that the callout should be positioned at.
- Callout Format. You can set the format column of this parameter to the format you would like to use for the background color, justification, text etc. of the callout shape. Just set it using the normal excel formatting tools and it will transfer that to the shape.
- Callout % Height. The callout is placed this %age of the height of the item shape above it.
- Callout % Width. How wide to make the callout relative to the item shape.
Executing the roadmap
Modifying the data through the roadmap.
Bringing up the data modification form
Roadmap Cost of Ownership chart
A note on copying and pasting
A google apps script version
There is also a Google Apps version. You can read about how that was developed here
Learning Apps Script, (and transitioning from VBA) are covered comprehensively in my my book, Going Gas – from VBA to Apps script, available