Quick Answer (TL;DR)
This free PowerPoint template tracks compliance initiatives across multiple regulatory frameworks (GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001) on a single timeline. Each framework shows its control categories, implementation status, and audit dates. Download the .pptx, plug in your target certifications and deadlines, and use it to coordinate engineering, legal, and security teams toward audit readiness.
What This Template Includes
- Cover slide. Product name, target certifications, and planning period.
- Instructions slide. How to select applicable frameworks, map control requirements, and set audit milestones. Remove before presenting.
- Blank template slide. Framework swim lanes across a monthly timeline with control category progress bars, milestone markers for audit dates, and dependency indicators between frameworks.
- Filled example slide. A SaaS product compliance roadmap showing simultaneous SOC 2 Type II and GDPR preparation over 12 months, with 20 control implementations and two audit milestones.
Why Compliance Needs Its Own Roadmap
Compliance work competes with product features for engineering time, but it follows fundamentally different rules. Feature work can be reprioritized, descoped, or delayed based on market feedback. Compliance work has fixed external deadlines. Audit dates, regulatory effective dates, and contractual commitments to enterprise customers.
Most product teams handle compliance by sprinkling control implementations across sprint backlogs. This approach fails for two reasons. First, compliance controls have dependencies: you cannot pass a SOC 2 audit on access controls if you have not implemented logging first. Second, auditors evaluate completeness across an entire framework, not individual controls. Partial implementation has zero value until you cross the certification threshold.
A dedicated compliance roadmap surfaces these dependencies, tracks framework-level progress (not just individual tickets), and gives leadership a clear answer to "When will we be SOC 2 certified?". A question that directly affects whether enterprise deals close. For context on how compliance fits into broader product planning in regulated industries, see the product management in regulated industries guide.
Template Structure
Framework Swim Lanes
Each regulatory framework gets a horizontal swim lane showing all required work:
- SOC 2. Trust Service Criteria: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy. Most B2B SaaS products start here.
- GDPR. Data protection requirements for EU users: data mapping, consent management, DSAR processes, DPA templates, breach notification procedures.
- HIPAA. Healthcare data safeguards: administrative, physical, and technical. Required for health-tech products handling PHI.
- ISO 27001. Information security management system (ISMS). Broad framework often pursued after SOC 2 for international credibility.
Add or remove swim lanes based on your regulatory requirements. Most teams target 1-2 frameworks per year.
Control Categories
Within each swim lane, work is grouped by control category rather than individual controls. For SOC 2, categories include Access Control, Change Management, Incident Response, Vendor Management, and Data Encryption. Progress bars show completion percentage per category.
This category-level view prevents the roadmap from becoming a 200-line task list. Engineering tracks individual controls in Jira or Linear. The roadmap communicates category-level progress to leadership.
Audit Milestones
Diamond markers on the timeline show critical dates: readiness assessments, pre-audit reviews, formal audits, and certification issuance. These are hard deadlines that pull the entire timeline backward. If the audit is in September, the implementation work must be done by August at the latest.
Dependency Arrows
Dotted lines between control categories show implementation dependencies. Logging infrastructure must exist before you can implement audit trail controls. Identity management must be in place before access control policies can be enforced. These dependencies determine sequencing and expose critical path items.
How to Use This Template
1. Identify target frameworks
Work with legal, sales, and security to determine which certifications your customers require. Enterprise B2B SaaS typically starts with SOC 2 Type II. Products handling EU user data add GDPR. Healthcare products add HIPAA. Prioritize frameworks that unblock the most revenue. Check which certifications your top 10 prospect objections reference.
2. Map control requirements
For each framework, list the control categories and estimate implementation effort per category. A SOC 2 readiness assessment (available from most audit firms) provides this mapping. Place each category on the timeline based on effort and dependencies.
3. Set audit dates
Work backward from your target certification date. SOC 2 Type II requires a 3-6 month observation window after controls are implemented. GDPR has no formal audit but requires demonstrable compliance by the time you process EU data. Place audit milestones on the timeline and verify that all prerequisite work fits before them.
4. Assign cross-functional owners
Compliance work spans engineering (implementing controls), security (defining policies), legal (reviewing contracts and DPAs), and ops (documenting procedures). Each control category needs a named owner. The stakeholder management guide covers coordination techniques for cross-functional work.
5. Track at the category level
Update progress bars monthly. When a category reaches 100%, it means all controls within it are implemented and evidence is being collected. Report at this category level in leadership reviews. Individual control status belongs in sprint standups, not executive presentations.
6. Plan for ongoing compliance
Certification is not a one-time event. SOC 2 Type II requires annual re-audits. GDPR requires ongoing DSAR processing. Add recurring milestones for annual reviews, policy updates, and re-certification audits on the roadmap.
When to Use This Template
A regulatory compliance roadmap is the right format when:
- Enterprise customers require certifications and sales needs a credible timeline for when SOC 2, HIPAA, or ISO 27001 will be achieved
- Multiple frameworks must be pursued simultaneously and the team needs to coordinate shared controls and sequencing across them
- Compliance work keeps slipping in sprint planning because it competes with feature work without a dedicated plan
- An audit date is fixed and leadership needs to see the critical path and any risks to readiness
- Board or investors are asking about security posture and need a structured view of compliance investments
For general infrastructure and technical planning, the technology roadmap PowerPoint template covers a broader scope. If compliance is one milestone among many, the milestone roadmap PowerPoint template provides a simpler format.
Key Takeaways
- Compliance roadmaps track work against fixed external deadlines that cannot be reprioritized like feature work.
- Framework swim lanes show parallel progress toward multiple certifications on a single view.
- Control category grouping keeps the roadmap strategic while engineering tracks individual controls in sprint backlogs.
- Dependency arrows expose critical path items and prevent sequencing mistakes.
- PowerPoint format makes the compliance timeline presentable to boards, enterprise customers, and executive leadership.
- Compatible with Google Slides, Keynote, and LibreOffice Impress. Upload the
.pptxto Google Drive to edit collaboratively in your browser.