Roadmap

 In software development, a roadmap (of a product) is that map, with directions and signs...telling you where a product should go.

This is not a planned route...or if it is it certainly is not the final one...it is just the directions ... like "just go north"...

Than developers will take this roadmap and will plan an actual route...with all its POIs ...all those stops (we call milestones) ...and we start the journey. 

At any moment the planned route can change...and than we reroute...place you POIs...remove old ones...but we are moving...towards that destination. Maybe we will not reach the original destination but we will certainly find another...a closer one. There will be always a destination. The destination is the most important aspect...the trip...not so much. This is not life.

For a company, planning a roadmap means investing in the future. It means placing your bets on certain features that could bring benefit for the company...even considering the invested effort.

So the question is always: will it pay off? ... on the short/middle/long term will the company benefit from this? ...because companies are there to produce profit ... that's one of the main goals.

If all the above are true...than who should come up with the destinations? 

Should developers be asked to come up with ideas to improve a product? ...and lay down some possible destinations? (bottom - up)

...or should the company come with destinations, goals, plans and than involve people to discuss them...find solutions to achieve them...to push those barriers? (top-down)

...to me both seem democratic approaches...but one seems more constructive than the other...and deciding which seems to be a subjective mater.

Anyways...it is roadmap time...that time of a year :)