Forecasting and Management of Technology, Second Edition

11.5 Technology Roadmapping

Technology roadmapping is a needs-driven planning approach that was developed to help identify, select, and develop alternatives to satisfy a set of product needs (Garcia and Bray 1997). This document includes a brief example of a roadmap. There is a more graphic example at Phaal (2010b). The approach can be applied within an organization or in collaboration with organizations that have a strong interest in a specific technology area. There are three phases to the process (Garcia and Bray 1997):

Phase I. Preliminary activity

1. Satisfy essential conditions.

2. Provide leadership/sponsorship.

3. Define the scope and boundaries for the roadmap.

Phase II. Development of the Technology Roadmap

1. Identify the “product” that will be the focus of the roadmap.

2. Identify the critical system requirements and their targets.

3. Specify the major technology areas.

4. Specify the technology drivers and their targets.

5. Identify technology alternatives and their time lines.

6. Recommend the technology alternatives that should be pursued.

7. Create the technology roadmap report.

Phase III. Follow-up activity

1. Critique and validate the roadmap.

2. Develop an implementation plan.

3. Review and update.

These phases reveal that technology roadmapping involves a broad range of activities, many of which overlap features of the exploring, analyzing, and focusing processes proposed in this book. Similarities between the two include a bounded general framework, ...