We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Engineering

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

What is Technology Roadmapping?

Michael Anissimov
By
Updated: May 17, 2024
Views: 6,805
Share

Technology roadmapping is a collaborative foresight process that solicits opinions from various experts to create a best guess of a development timeline for a particular technology. Technology roadmaps tend to look between a few years and a couple decades into the future. Beyond this, prediction becomes very hazy and speculative. Technology roadmapping is a process usually undertaken by consultants to large companies interested in the future of technology in their market niche.

Some technologies may be too expensive to implement as soon as they are conceived, but will bring a return on investment when the cost of the underlying materials or manufacturing processes drops below a critical threshold. For instance, the manufacturers of computer chips realize that eventually the use of photolithography to create integrated circuits will reach a point of diminishing returns, after which it would be prudent to have alternate plans in place for making better chips. Some technology roadmapping projects attempt to do just that, investigating alternatives for chip manufacture including DNA computing, 3D computing, quantum computing, nanotechnology, and the like.

Technology roadmapping is an intuitive phrase which basically means “corporation-sponsored futurism”. Technology roadmaps are expected to be somewhat rigorous and quantitative in nature, combining past trends with educated guesses about capital costs to determine research and development obstacles and opportunities for a particular technology or technology application. Technology roadmapping not only asks how difficult it would be to develop a new technology, but what development path should be taken and within what context the technology might emerge. A spinoff of a technology roadmapping project might be a product roadmap, which focuses on a specific product and the challenges in fabricating it and rolling it out.

Technology roadmapping has been applied to pharmaceuticals, aerospace, manufacturing, nanotechnology, power generation, electronics, and many other areas. No technology roadmapping effort will ever be 100% correct, but many companies consider these roadmaps to be better than nothing and spend millions on developing them.

Share
WiseGeek is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Michael Anissimov
By Michael Anissimov
Michael Anissimov is a dedicated WiseGeek contributor and brings his expertise in paleontology, physics, biology, astronomy, chemistry, and futurism to his articles. An avid blogger, Michael is deeply passionate about stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and life extension therapies. His professional experience includes work with the Methuselah Foundation, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and Lifeboat Foundation, further showcasing his commitment to scientific advancement.

Editors' Picks

Discussion Comments
Michael Anissimov
Michael Anissimov
Michael Anissimov is a dedicated WiseGeek contributor and brings his expertise in paleontology, physics, biology,...
Learn more
Share
https://www.wisegeek.net/what-is-technology-roadmapping.htm
Copy this link
WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

WiseGeek, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.