Quickly review the best roadmap software for project management

Roadmap software is frequently used to plan the upcoming work on a project, helping project managers and their teams balance workload, coordinate and prioritize activities, and track progress in a transparent way. 

Despite the variety of roadmap apps in the market, choosing the best one for your team can be time-consuming as you’ll need to review all their various features and see if they suit your specific needs or integrate with any other project management tools you may be already using.

To help you with the selection process, we’ve picked out 10 of the best roadmap tools in 2019 based on user ratings. The candidates are:

10 top roadmap software for project management

In the overview of the best roadmap software below, you can find out more about the features, pricing, and main benefits of the best roadmap apps on the market today. You’ll also find an average user rating to help you quickly compare these tools.

1. Roadmunk

Average rating (GetApp, TrustRadius, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.63/5

Offering schedule visualization tools, project templates (called “roadmaps”) and team collaboration functionalities, Roadmunk is a cloud-based project management software suitable for all industries and businesses of all sizes. With a user-friendly interface, the product is easy to implement in an existing environment and allows users to:

• Rank tasks based on priority
• Attach files to specific tasks
• Create a roadmap starting from one of the pre-built designs available or by uploading CSV files or Jira data
• Customize and configure the roadmap to suit a particular project
• Export the roadmap in several popular formats and share them with colleagues
• Assign one of three permission levels to team members (if they are the administrator)
• Try it out through a free trial (the paid subscription is on a monthly basis, with prices ranging from $19 to $99+ based on the plan customers choose).

2. Aha! Software

Average rating (Software Advice, GetApp, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.55/5

Aha! is a cloud-based project management solution that allows users to create customized product, manufacturing, marketing, technology and consulting roadmaps, thus catering to a wide range of industries. Including Kanban boards, task lists, analytics and collaboration as primary features, the software supports Agile and Scrum workflows and integrates with applications such as Jira, Zendesk, Slack, Dropbox, Visual Studio, Trello and others.

A free trial option is available, supported by demos, a getting-started guide, and knowledge base.

3. ProductPlan

Average rating (Software Advice, GetApp, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.5/5

Managers who prefer to use visual overviews of their project to communicate plans for future work to teams of all sizes can find a reliable resource in ProductPlan. A cloud-based visual roadmap platform, it allows the easy and quick creation of roadmaps that can be customized with timeframes, tags, legends and filters, shared with viewers and exported as PDF, image or spreadsheet. Tracking any change or update made to the roadmap, the software integrates with major project management tools such as Jira, Slack, and Pivotal Tracker, helping managers to avoid double work.

It comes in both free and paid versions and a variety of plans: Business ($39/mo/user), Enterprise ($69/mo/user), and Enterprise Plus ($99/mo/user), the payment being billed annually.

4. ProWorkflow

Average rating (GetApp, TrustPilot, G2Crowd, Capterra): 4.46/5

A cloud-based project management tool suitable for individual use and teams of 5 to 5,000, ProWorkflow helps users easily track tasks, progress, resources, and invoices through customizable features tailored to their business profile.

Users can choose from three plans: Solo ($10/month) – ideal for freelancers, Professional ($20/month/user), and Advanced ($30/month/user) – most suitable for large teams. Customers who pay one year in advance get a 10% discount.

5. Targetprocess

Average rating (Software Advice, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.44/5

Targetprocess is a cloud-based modular software that supports project management using a combination of Scrum, Kanban and the user’s preset work solution. Ensuring data visualization at every level of the organization, the tool allows users to prioritize incoming work with visual encoding cues, signal every change with live updates, and track progress and manage risks through alerts.

Targetprocess offers a 30-day free version, a free trial for their Company plan (which costs $20/mo/user) and an Enterprise package, with prices tailored to the customer’s needs.

6. Office Timeline

Average rating (GetApp, TrustPilot, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.42/5

An on-premise project scheduler that directly integrates into PowerPoint as an add-on, Office Timeline helps you automatically turn your project data into easy-to-follow timelines and Gantt charts. Offering pre-built, customizable templates and tracking features such as task duration or percent complete, the add-in integrates with applications such as MS Project, Excel, Wrike, or Smartsheet to help you import, export, or sync your project data.

This PowerPoint roadmap maker offers two plans, Free and Plus ($59/year). While the free version is fully-functional, the Plus edition’s users get access to more customization options and productivity features. The upcoming Pro edition of Office Timeline ($99/year) is expected to bring new features like swimlanes, milestones on tasks, and a visual editor that will help you create professionals project roadmaps even faster.

7. ProdPad

Average rating (GetApp, TrustRadius, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.18/5

Offering diverse project management functionalities (Kanban, roadmaps, collaboration, idea management), ProdPad is a flexible product that integrates with Jira, Slack, Trello and other major tools used for project management purposes. Users get access to a different host of features and level of administrative rights depending on which of the three plans they select (Essential, Advanced and Performance).

Each of them comes with a free trial, whereas the paid versions cost $99/month (Essential), $299/month (Advanced) and $999/month (Performance).

8. Roadmap Planner

Average rating (TrustRadius, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4.1/5

Roadmap Planner is a desktop/mobile tool that allows organizations from various business domains to create business development, marketing and product vision roadmaps. Access to different planning, visualization, management, and data exchange functionalities depends on the plan users choose (Basic or Pro).

In terms of pricing, the only free version is the one with basic features for a single user, the options that include more users and different features implying subscription payment ($4.00/month/user).

9. Wrike

Average rating (Software Advice, TrustPilot, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 4/5

Suitable for both enterprises and SMBs, Wrike is a cloud-based project management solution that comes with Gantt charts, workload view for resource management, custom dashboards and calendars. Structuring via folders, tasks and projects and auto-assignment based on task status is possible as well.

Depending on the number of users and features required, customers can choose from a variety of plans: Free (limited to 5 users and basic features), Professional ($9.80/mo/user), Business ($24.80/mo/user), Marketers and Enterprise.

10. Craft

Average rating (Software Advice, TrustPilot, G2 Crowd, Capterra): 3.82/5

Designed for teams in companies of all sizes across various industries, Craft is a cloud-based software that allows project and product managers to customize workflows, track time spent/progress in Scrum story points and add/update tasks and priority scores as needed. With features such as product road mapping, idea, task and release management, version control, and feedback collection, the tool helps efficiently plan product releases, milestones and initiatives within a project.

Users who try out the free 14-day trial and decide to buy can choose from three plans: Essential ($39/month/user), Pro ($89/month/user), and Enterprise (price established after sales consultation).

Roadmap Software for Mac

Taking into consideration the clear tendency towards cloud-based roadmap solutions, we also recommend the free, online project scheduler from Office Timeline. Using the easy drag & drop interface of this relatively new web tool, you can create and update product roadmaps directly in your browser, and then download them as PowerPoint slides or .png images to present in meetings.

Conclusion

Choosing the right product roadmap software for your team and organization can be overwhelming. We hope this user review analysis will help you make an informed decision as to what option is best suited for you.

The phenomenon of putting off any type of task that needs to be completed by a certain deadline is called procrastination. A commonly cited "culprit" causing this type of behavior is laziness, leading to the judgmental opinion that procrastinators are somehow morally faulty, disorganized, weak-willed or unmotivated.

However, more and more studies come to refute this misconception, claiming that procrastination is neither shameful, nor a character flaw, but a result of various situational constraints. To bolster this statement, many specialists have pointed out that procrastination is especially manifested when the task in question is meaningful to its undertaker (who cares about performing it well).

Social psychologist and professor at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Continuing & Professional Studies Devon Price is one of the supporters of the idea that procrastination is not a consequence of laziness, but a functioning problem stemming from two major causes:

1. Anxiety about the final outcome not being good enough (perfectionism);
2. Confusion and doubts about how to initiate the task (executive functioning challenge).

In other words, procrastination has nothing to do with moral conduct or motivation, but mostly with fear of failure or the uncertainty about how to begin a complex undertaking. Procrastinators would often will themselves to work for hours, but end up paralyzed in front of a blank Word document, piling on the guilt and worsening their level of stress.

The key solution to such instances, Devon Price suggests, is to identify which of the two above is the source of obstruction and:

1. If anxiety is the impediment, you need to walk away from the task and engage in a relaxing activity. This should act like a restart button.
2. If you don’t know how to begin the task, you should divide the main activity into a series of specific subtasks and organize them on a timeline to better track progress. It creates a psychological shift in the way you perceive the challenge at hand (an overall massive project vs. smaller, separate activities that you can tackle one by one).

Applying this strategy becomes even easier when using external structuring tools, such as the intuitive PowerPoint add-in called Office Timeline, which helps you turn your to-do list, schedule or activity plan into a beautiful and clear timeline. You can kick-start the process with our slide here (which is free to copy and share), and can add more milestones and tasks to the graphic using the Plus version of the tool.

Download the Project Management Template for PowerPoint or choose any other free templates from our gallery.

On July 17, the Mexican drug kingpin and former leader of the Sinaloa cartel Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo”, was sentenced to life behind bars in a U.S. prison. The sentence was handed down by a federal judge in Brooklyn, within a 11-week trial that followed Guzmán’s conviction five months ago. The 62-year-old drug lord was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion in ill-gotten proceeds acquired through the massive distribution of cocaine and other drugs in and around the United States.

The Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Timeline gives a visual summary of the illegal activities that made him one of the most powerful and most-wanted drug traffickers in the world.

Known as “El Chapo” (meaning “Shorty” in Spanish) due to his 5ft 6 stature, Guzmán was born on 4th of April 1957 in Sinaloa, Mexico. Raised in a poor family and subjected to physical abuse by his father, the young Guzmán was introduced to drug trade by the very same person. Starting to work for a local drug lord in the early 1970s, he soon learned the ins and outs of the industry and gradually received increasingly important responsibilities within the drug cartel. By the start of the 90s, he was already a well-established leader of the Sinaloa faction due to his (in)famous and fierce ways of doing business.

Not only did this propel him at the top of Mexican drug traffic hierarchy, but also made him the target of countless attempts of assassination plotted by his rivals and wide-range manhunts organized by the Mexican government. He was captured and sent behind the bars by the national authorities twice, but managed to break out of prison each time only to return to leading his drug empire with renewed, more violent strength.

Overseeing operations whereby a wide range of drugs was produced, smuggled, and distributed in the U.S., Europe and Asia, he gained notoriety for pioneering the use of tunnels to move drugs, which enabled him to export more narcotics in the U.S. than any other trafficker ever.

The Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Timeline was created with the intuitive PowerPoint add-in called Office Timeline, which allows the fast creation of stylish timelines, Gantt charts and other types of similar visuals. You can copy and share the slide for free, and further edit it with the tool’s Plus version.

Download the El Chapo Guzmán Timeline for PowerPoint here.

Sometimes, it takes years or months for certain events to unfold and reveal their full-scale magnitude and long-term effects. However, others take just only a day to make a major impact on humankind and the course of history. So it goes for the accident that took place at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on the 26th of April 1986, permanently altering that region and making the area around the former plant uninhabitable for an estimated 20,000 years. Initially denied as having happened by the Soviet authorities, the disaster is now considered the worst of its kind in history.

To illustrate how the Chernobyl nuclear accident escalated to a historic calamity, we created The Chernobyl Disaster Timeline, which gives a blow-by-blow narrative of the missteps that triggered this tragic meltdown.

Background Facts

• The nuclear accident occurred at the V.I Lenin Nuclear Power Station, near the city of Chernobyl (65 miles north of Kiev, Ukraine), in the former URSS.
• The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was considered a model of Soviet engineering, using four RBMK nuclear reactors to produce electricity for about 30 million homes and businesses.
• The power plant’s newest reactor (the fourth one) was the scene of the tragedy. It contained 1,600 radioactive uranium-235 fuel rods. Due to the unstable nature of U-235, its atoms are capable of releasing neutrons that hit other U-235 nuclei, which in turn release new neutrons. All this causes a chain reaction, the byproduct of which is the release of huge quantities of heat and energy which are used to turn water into steams. The steam then drives a turbine, thus generating electricity.
• To contain the chain reaction within limits, control rods made of a neutron-absorbing substance need to be inserted between fuel rods. For Reactor No. 4’s control rods (a total of 211), the element boron was used. Raising the control rods leads to the acceleration of the chain reaction, while the lowering of the control rods causes the chain reaction to slow down.
• Ironically, it was a safety test that brought about the destruction. Coinciding with a routine downtime for maintenance, the test was scheduled to determine whether the reactor could still be cooled in case of a power failure. In preparation for this process, Chernobyl’s operators initiated power reduction on the 25th of April (1:00 pm) and, after twelve hours, Reactor No. 4 reached 50% power. According to the standard procedures of the safety test, the required threshold was of 30%. However, due to an apparent need for electricity in the region, the Soviet authorities called for the reactor to remain at 50% for another 9 hours. Meanwhile, the emergency core cooling system was switched off...
• With power plummeting far below the level at which the reactor would be stable, operators were asked to remove almost all control rods against safety guidelines. The violation of these protocols led to a sudden power surge inside the plant. Despite the attempt to shut down the reactor altogether, control rods jammed upon entering the core, causing a series of explosions inside and then the final one, that literally blew apart the reactor and the 1,000-ton roof above it, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

Killing 31 people directly (28 workers and firefighters dying of acute radiation poisoning), the Chernobyl calamity is considered responsible for thousands of premature cancer deaths as well. Encased in a massive steel structure deployed in 2016, the remains of the reactor still require containment and monitoring efforts, with its cleanup expected to last until at least 2065.

The Chernobyl Disaster Timeline was built with Office Timeline, a user-friendly add-in that helps you easily produce clear and beautiful timelines and other types of visuals right inside PowerPoint. The slide is free to share and copy, and can be edited and updated using the Plus version of the tool.

Download the Chernobyl Disaster Timeline for PowerPoint here.

Apple is one of the top brands within the global smartphone industry, its high status being owed to a series of qualities such as sleek design, cutting-edge functionalities and vigorous marketing. However, another factor that has contributed to its popularity among smartphone users resides in the company’s constant software updates.

To illustrate how long Apple supports older iPhone models, we have created a simple visual summary of the software updates the technology giant has offered for all major iPhone models to date.

With the introduction of every new iPhone model, Apple guarantees upwards of four years of major iOS updates to the customers that buy the newly-launched device. According to data sourced by Statista, this interval has only gone up for the latest released iPhones.

Looking at Apple’s ‘genealogy’, one can confirm and trace this trend back to the iPhone 4s. Starting with its release, every major subsequent model has received at least five important iOS updates before being cut off. So it’s the case with the iPhone 6, the most recent Apple smartphone to be deprived of the yearly updates with iOS 13.

If we compare the number of updates iOS and Android devices get during their lifetime, the former have a clear upper hand over the latter, which have reached three updates at most. This ascendancy is noticeable even in the distribution numbers, with Android’s latest version being installed in only 10.4% of devices as opposed to a crushing 87% of iPhones with the last major iOS software upgrade.

Not only do these constant updates enable the older models to benefit from the latest features Apple offers to the newer devices, but they also add to the product’s value retention. This is why many owners hold on to iPhones for so long. Let’s take iPhone 6s users, for instance, who got to enjoy Apple’s 2019 extension for the iOS13 update all the way back to devices released in 2015. In other words, they were granted an “extra lease” and they don’t care much if they are cut off next year. After 5 years of upgrades, it is acceptable to move on to a new smartphone which is likely to see a similar lengthy lifespan of updates.

Of course software upgrade frequency is not the only criterion to be considered before buying a smartphone. However, for those prospects who care for this aspect, Apple has definitely got an ace up its sleeve.

The History of Software Updates for All iPhone Models to Date was built with the intuitive PowerPoint add-in called Office Timeline. It is designed to enable the creation of simple yet stylish timelines, Gantt charts and other types of chronology graphics in a hassle-free manner. The slide is free to copy and share, and can be updated and further styled using the Plus version of the tool.

Download the History of Software Updates for All iPhone Models to Date here.