hence poor customer retention Poor perception of product quality in the industry Reduced viability of entering newer markets and impairment in capability to introduce newer features successfully into the roadmap and in the field Known Factors This section will explain more about the impact of different known factors on network roadmaps. Technology When we discuss the impact of technology, we have to consider a couple of aspects here. The first is that when we consider impacts of technology, we must also consider the technology used to implement the product. The second is that the product also makes available a technology to its customers and users that should also be evaluated when the roadmaps are defined. Here, we consider the impacts in terms of both aspects on the roadmap. CHAPTER 4 NETWORK ROADMAPS Implementation technology tends to get chosen pretty early in the product development cycle and most often tends to age badly. Such technology tends to feel like an albatross around the product's neck, limiting the scope of improvements achievable in the product. The following factors could help a business know if parts of implementation technology need an overhaul: Are the tools used in the product development still current? Have any of the software packages reached their end of life? Are there issues seen in the field or during testing that cannot be fixed as the implementation technology inherently has these issues (or so goes the root cause analysis)? When new features get implemented, does development most often take more time than planned due to gaps discovered in the implementation? Do security scans done on the product highlight outdated packages that cause vulnerabilities in the product? Are there any performance requirements from customers that simply cannot be met with the current product architecture? If your answer was yes to even some of these questions, you should consider an upgrade to the product's technology one of the important aspects in the roadmap. A business should see this as an investment 