I'm using internally a simple text list to represent roadmaps. But that's not enough when it comes to present the roadmap to some powerpoint accustomed decision makers.
Do you know of any techniques to generate (nice looking) development roadmaps? How do you produce your roadmaps?
Update: Started a bounty to draw a little more attention.
I think easies way will be to take some background, may be faded logo of company and draw a huge arrow from left bottom corner to right upper. this can be done anywhere. then add axis depending on what you plan to represent: versions or products. then you can add one more axis if you have some other parameter. then add items in circles on arrow according to your plan. here it is. as a sample just google roadman: http://www.google.ru/images?um=1&hl=ru&newwindow=1&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=roadmap&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
roadmap like this can easily be done in Word or Powerpoint:
I use Visio for this, although in quite a simplistic way. Calendar quarters along the horizontal axis (top), project streams on the vertical axis (left), a bunch of left-to-right rectangles within each stream to signify duration of specific pieces. Simple and quick.
Use Trello! have a look to this example http://suntico.com/roadmap/
I'm using Redmine for managing the R&D roadmap.
I'm using trello for sharing high level roadmap with may boss, so he can have a simple overview of main features and, it simplier to discuss with him :-) I'm using trello also for a public Roadmap.
It is sad that appearances do matter at all, but I'm sure the big management do appreciate easy to understand visualizations. Towards that route, remember to act as if they were 8 year olds and knew nothing. Everything I do turns out ugly, so I can't give you advice on beauty -- but I can say 'dumb it down' as much as possible.
I do not believe there is any specialized application out there to create the perfect looking ready-map roadmaps for you, though Visio may work. I'd recommend PowerPoint and pretending like you were giving the presentation to first graders ;).
You could try something like this:
http://demo.tutorialzine.com/2010/01/advanced-event-timeline-with-php-css-jquery/demo.php
Combine that with a way to export your roadmap from a project management suite and transform that into some simple HTML and you've got yourself a kick-ass interactive visualization.
Not a tool - but the thoughtworks guys have a nice format and rating system that can easily be replicated in powerpoint.
