Comparative Study and Classification of Technology Roadmap Development Methods

This paper attempts to overview and analyze the models presented in literature for developing a technology roadmap in different contexts، namely international، national، industrial، and corporation contexts. Today technology plays an important role in corporation competitiveness، so it should be managed in a strategic way. One of the important goals in strategic management of technology at corporate level is applying technologies in such a way that value creation in the corporation is optimized. Therefore، technology managers need a tool to ensure value creation. Technology roadmap is a vital tool for protecting strategic planning business، product، and technology which provides essential processes، information and instrument to produce them. Many frameworks and models have been presented for developing technology roadmap. But characteristics and assumptions of those models largely restrict their applications to different circumstances. In this paper nature and structure of different frameworks and models are assessed and compared on the basis of theoretical approach. After comparing those models regarding three different aspects (e. g. content، process، and context)، all of their weaknesses and strengths will be discussed. The output of this assessment and investigation is a classification of models which helps corporations in selecting the best model of developing technology roadmap based on their goals and circumstances.