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.