How does one present current and future projects with gaps with overlapping timelines?

Question

There are currently 160+ projects in flight. Based on business priorities, needs and wants, these are being group as current and future with a view to further segment these by timelines such as 3, 6, 9, 12 months.

These also need to be presented with current capabilities, future requirements and gaps. This is primarily from a technology, people and process perspective. The intention is to present to the wider management team so that they have an appreciation of the investment required to deliver the projects.

Some of the capabilities will be able to deliver current and future initiatives however there will others that have gaps and require further investment. As these are developed and become available they form part of the existing foundation.

For example, in the first 3 months there are projects A,B,C,D supported by technology, people and process 1,2,3,4,5 however 4,5 will only be available in the next cycle e.g. 6 months which presents a gap which will impact the immediate deliverables. These may be constraints or show stoppers.

How does one present this visually?

Answer 1

Having multiple projects following a common goal sounds like a programme. You could search for visualisations of a programme roadmap.

But despite of project, programme or portfolio, the methodologies are often comparable:

Think about a work packages, constraints, dependencies, and a critical path in a "usual" project: Regarding a programme roadmap you could use the same drawing techniques like you apply in a projects, e.g. arrows for dependencies or colour for the critical chain of projects putting a risk on the overall benefits delivery.