A business exercise which aims at looking at the organisation and its environment beyond the usual short and mid-term future to identify opportunities and threats, areas of growth and expansion, how constraints may evolve, and prepare for potential disruptions.
Long-range planning is carried out at the strategic level and mostly relies on forecasts extrapolated from current conditions and trends.
see also: roadmapping
related articles: planisware enterprise demo: the case for using roadmaps, a primer for integrated roadmapping: an interview with ken huskins