How to put together a quarterly roadmap
A roadmap is one quarter, twelve to thirteen weeks. Outcomes can span quarters; epics cannot.
Why it matters
The single biggest reason portfolios miss is that nothing forces a calendar boundary. A 6-month roadmap with no internal gates is a 9-month roadmap waiting to happen. The Tenhaw Way uses the quarter as the immovable container, when an epic spills, it spills visibly, into the next roadmap, with a reason.
Step by step
- Pick the quarter. Tenhaw auto-creates a Tech Debt epic and a Bug Budget epic on it before you add anything else.
- Choose the outcomes the quarter will move. Three to six is normal. Ten is too many.
- Run the Quarterly Autopilot. With those outcomes selected. It proposes the epic mix using your real velocity and tells you whether it fits.
- Reserve Tech Debt + Bug Budget. Default 15% + 10% of capacity. Adjust based on the last two quarters' burn.
- Confirm capacity headroom. If the proposal is over capacity, cut scope now, not in week eight.
- Schedule refinement, retros, health checks. Tenhaw books these against the roadmap so they don't go missing.
What good looks like
- 3–6 outcomes covered, no more
- Tech Debt + Bug Budget epics present and sized
- Total proposed points ≤ realistic capacity, with headroom
- Refinement, retro, health-check dates already on the calendar
- One human owner per outcome
How Tenhaw runs this
A Tenhaw roadmap is the quarter. Tech Debt and Bug Budget epics get auto-created on every new one. Quarterly Autopilot proposes the epic mix using your real velocity; the Scenario Simulator stress-tests scope/team/deadline what-ifs before you commit.
- Tenhaw Roadmaps
- Tenhaw Quarterly Autopilot
- Tenhaw Scenario Simulator
- Tenhaw Tech Debt epic
- Tenhaw Bug Budget epic
In Tenhaw → Roadmaps → New roadmap → run AI Coach → Quarterly Autopilot. The Scenario Simulator lets you stress-test by dialling scope/team/deadline what-ifs.
Run this in your team
The Tenhaw product enforces every rule in this playbook so it doesn't sit on a wiki gathering dust. Try Tenhaw or book a working session with the founder.