Technology Management
Summary
Technology management encompasses the structured planning, development and oversight of technological initiatives within organisations, ensuring that engineering efforts, R&D and innovation portfolios align with strategic objectives and market needs. It brings together disciplines such as strategic planning, organisational behaviour and systems engineering to anticipate technical trajectories, allocate resources optimally and coordinate cross‐functional teams. Central concerns include the evaluation and selection of emerging technologies, the design of roadmaps that visualise milestones and dependencies, and the governance of adoption processes to address barriers from user acceptance to regulatory compliance. By integrating foresight methods, iterative updating and systematic stakeholder engagement, technology management helps firms and regions anticipate disruptive change, foster collaboration across R&D, marketing and operations, and sustain long‐term competitiveness in dynamic global markets.
Research from Nature Portfolio
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Research from all publishers
A recent paper in Frontiers of Engineering Management (2024) presents ‘R2’, an adaptable workshop template for organisations to build their own roadmapping systems. By guiding teams through iterative design of internal roadmaps, the study shows how a meta-roadmap approach can reduce information asymmetries and improve alignment between technology and business processes, illustrated with additive-manufacturing case studies. A systematic review in Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2022) examines two decades of industry-level applications of technology roadmapping. It finds that stakeholder engagement is often insufficient, proposes design propositions to enhance breadth and depth of involvement, and offers a typology of combined methods and best practices for large-scale roadmap execution. Earlier work on scenario-driven roadmapping (2017) integrates scenario planning with traditional roadmaps, introducing “flex points” as critical indicators that trigger shifts between plausible futures. A case on RFID adoption in healthcare demonstrates how this combined method yields detailed, actionable roadmaps that link current capabilities to alternative future pathways.
Technology Management publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in technology management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Technology Roadmapping: A visual, timeline-based process for aligning technology development, market needs and strategic objectives.
Strategic Innovation Management: The discipline of planning and governing innovation activities to achieve long-term organisational goals.
Scenario Planning: A foresight technique for constructing and analysing multiple plausible future contexts to inform strategic decisions.
Flex Points: Critical developments or decision nodes identified in a roadmap that indicate potential shifts between alternative future pathways.
Stakeholder Involvement: The active engagement of internal and external parties in roadmap creation and validation to ensure relevance and commitment.
References
- Roadmapping Roadmapping: Strategic planning for roadmapping systems. Frontiers of Engineering Management (2024).
- A systematic review of industry-level applications of technology roadmapping: Evaluation and design propositions for roadmapping practitioners. Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2022).
- Scenario-driven roadmapping for technology foresight. Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2017).
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