 can make a stake for future business revenues from implementing these features. Also, for the same reason, organizations tend to push features that are developed with lesser cost in their product into the standards to make them mandatory for competitors to catch up to. Developing features in the product roadmap before they become part of standards could be beneficial in driving home competitive advantage to the product and company developing the same. Disruptive (Risk) Factors All projects are subject to risks. All businesses are also operating under a set of risks. Risks could be positive or negative. A positive risk could actually be turned into an advantage to the project and help the project benefit from it. Note The Project Management Institute has a very good set of guidelines on risk management as a knowledge area for those more interested in a detailed study of the topic. CHAPTER 4 NETWORK ROADMAPS In the context of roadmap development, a positive risk could be allowed to develop and occur. This would help accelerate the roadmap implementation or multiply the business benefits that are associated with the roadmap. More commonly though, roadmaps are subject to negative risk factors, some of which we explain briefly below. Disasters The United Nations defined disaster as: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society. Disasters involve widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Disasters could be categorized into the following types: Natural disasters: These are events categorized as acts of nature, such as floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, among others. They could have a primary impact via the natural occurrence and they could also have a secondary impact due to damages or situations caused by the natural disaster. The 2004 tsunami triggered in the Indian Ocean by an undersea mega thrust earthquake is one suc