The “Open IT” research project is being carried out in the scope of the federal state “Aufstieg durch Bildung: offene Hochschulen” initiative (“Advancement through education: open universities”) in which credit transfer programmes are being designed for IT practitioners in Germany. In this process, research is being carried out into the development, implementation and use of methods to support self-study, which will be prepared for transfer to teaching. The use of a self-study roadmap for students and lecturers has been developed in the course of this research. This self-study roadmap supports students’ time management and the balance of study, work and family.Following the numerous evaluation steps involved in the creation of the self-study roadmap, the roadmap has been formally implemented and developed within the research project. The benefits, use and challenges of this learning tool are analysed and reflected upon in this paper in the context of education management. A strategic point of view has been chosen so that the tool can be examined on a meta level. The relevant perspective of the university, lecturers and students has been adopted so that an all-encompassing view can be guaranteed at strategic level.