CAPM Practice: Demonstrate an understanding of product roadmaps

The roadmap gives BAs strategic context for requirements work. Understanding the product's planned direction helps prioritize which requirements matter now, identify dependencies with future roadmap items, and ensure current work doesn't create obstacles for planned future capabilities.

**Why not A:** Limiting the roadmap to a reporting tool for management significantly understates its value. The product roadmap serves as a strategic guide that helps the BA understand product direction, prioritize features, and align requirements with long-term goals. Using it only for status reporting ignores its primary purpose as a planning and alignment artifact.

**Why not B:** Ignoring the roadmap in favor of only immediate stakeholder requests is a recipe for misaligned requirements. The roadmap provides essential strategic context that helps the BA evaluate which stakeholder requests align with the product vision and which may conflict with planned direction. Without that context, the BA risks gathering requirements that undermine long-term product strategy.

**Why not C:** The BA is not solely responsible for creating the roadmap — that is typically the product owner's or product manager's responsibility. The BA contributes to and consumes the roadmap, but suggesting they must create it before any requirements gathering reverses the relationship. Requirements gathering and roadmap development often inform each other iteratively rather than sequentially.