TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP PROCESS

Characteristics of Technology roadmap process

Technology roadmap process is a powerful method for supporting technology management and planning. It has been widely used in industry (Barker and Smith, 1995) but consists of various types of format. For example a roadmap may appear in the forms of multiple layers, bars, texts, time, pictorial representations, flow charts, or arrows (see figure 1). A roadmap may not appear in the form as shown in figure 1 but may contain many different kinds of combination (of these formats) to suit a particular business situation. The diverse ways of roadmap construction may be due to a lack of clear and accepted standards or guidelines for managers (Phaal et al., 2004). Nevertheless a few organisations have successfully developed an effective roadmaps, such as Motorola’s technology roadmap (Willyard and McClees, 1987) and Cambridge’s technology roadmap (TRM). The purposes and architectures of these roadmaps are discussed in the following paragraphs.




Market
Product
Technology
Time
xxxx
xxxx
Multiple layers
bars
arrows
texts
Flow charts
Pictorial representations
time















Figure 1: Examples of technology roadmap types (format)


According to Willyard and McClees (1987), the Motorola’s technology roadmap is used to define technological capabilities, analyse engineering and financial resources, determine whether the technological priorities are correct, and help to track the progress in product and process development. The process of roadmap development aims to encourage business managers to pay significant attention to their technological future, increase communications between R&D and the marketing personnel. The roadmap is a compilation of documents, charts, matrices, and graphs that provide a comprehensive explanation of the product line from past to future, in supporting the process of planning and managing the complex technological environment. The technology roadmap has eight sections and each of them can stand alone as a separate piece of information, but the benefit lies in the combined usage of each section. Each section is representing tools used for the management of technology. An example is shown in Figure 2. As refer to figure 2, the roadmap shows whether the company has committed or remain caution in terms of different critical technology in the development of different product family.


Critical technology 3
Critical technology 2
Products
Critical technology 1
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3













Committed
Caution
Critical






Figure 3: An example of Motorola’s technology roadmap (source: adopted from Willyard and McClees, 1987)


An example of a TRM is show in figure 3. The TRM shows how a firm’s resources and technologies are linked to the development of its product which ultimately meeting the business objectives and market needs.


Market / Business
Product feature
Technology area
Other resources
Year 0
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3













Figure 3: An example of a TRM (Source: Phaal et al., 2004)

Clearly, a TRM is used to support technology strategy and planning. The TRM “is a high-level planning tool that can be used to support the development and implementation of strategy and plans, as well as communication of the plan” (Phaal et al., 2001). However, unlike the Motorola’s technology roadmap process, there is no detailed guidance on how to develop the TRM. An attempt was made to fill this gap by the development of a T-plan fast start guide (Phaal et al., 2001).

Technology Roadmapping

Technology roadmap management

Choy Leong Yee

Faculty of Economics and Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: 603-8946 7731; E-mail: yee@econ.upm.edu.my



Abstract

The issue of technology management is becoming increasingly important and critical in delivering competitive advantage to companies. The effective management of technology requires appropriate methods or systems such as a technology roadmap process, which can support the development and implementation of integrated strategic business, product and technology plans. This paper reviews the rapidly increasing literature on the technology roadmap process. Based on the literature on a Technology Roadmap (TRM) process developed by Cambridge’s manufacturing group, a gap is identified within a few implementation problems of the process in practical settings, especially concerning human resource management issues. A new method is proposed to overcome the problems and fill this gap. The paper is divided into four major parts. Firstly, a general review on technology management. Secondly, an illustration of technology roadmap processes in terms of their types of format, purposes and architectures. Thirdly, the issues and challenges of applying technology roadmap process are discussed and a gap is identified within the literature on the existing TRM process. Lastly, the paper concludes with a proposal for a new method, Technology Roadmap Management (TRM-II), to fill the gap. The implications of the proposed method to both industrialists and academics are discussed.
Key words: Technology management; TRM process; human resource management; top-level managers; Technology Roadmap Management (TRM-II).

TRM

Technology Roadmapping