we have a number of functional deliverable planned for 2010 but we also have a technology agenda (architectural refactorings, consolidation, upgrade a platform). any suggestions on the best way to include these in a roadmap to help the business understand why they are important.
one option is just saying trust us as this is the right thing to do to keep everything healthy but i would like some better visualization if possible
Being a bit cynical about it, I would say phrase every thing in terms of money. If you can't re-write your technical agenda in terms of money made or money saved, then why are you doing it at all?
Also, there is an article on "technical debt in financial terms" that I found very useful at:
http://forums.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/11/01/technical-debt-2.aspx
One of the more interesting points, to me, is "One of the important implications of technical debt is that it must be serviced, i.e., once you incur a debt there will be interest charges."
There is a brief follow up at
http://forums.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/12/12/technical-debt-decision-making.aspx