Future-oriented technology analysis (FTA) is a collective term from futures studies for analyzing future technology and its consequences. It includes technology intelligence, technology forecasting, technology roadmapping, technology assessment, and technology foresight. Technology Futures Analysis or Technology Future Analysis (TFA) is a synonym.
Future-oriented technology analysis shares common methods with horizon scanning.
Definitions Year Definition 2004 Technology futures analysis is "any process to produce judgments about emerging technology characteristics, development pathways, and potential impacts of a technology in the future. ... [TFA] encompasses the broad technology foresight and assessment studies of the public sector and the technology forecasting and intelligence studies in private industry." 2013 Future-oriented technology analysis is "an umbrella term to denote several decision-preparatory tools - (technology) foresight, forecasting and technology assessment - and thus it is not a discipline with solid, widely accepted theoretical foundations."
Methods + Methods and their families Method Family Agent based modeling Modeling and simulation Analytical hierarchy process Valuing/decision/economic Backcasting Descriptive and matrices Bibliometrics Monitoring and intelligence, Statistics Brainstorming Creativity Cross impact analysis Modeling and simulation, Statistics Delphi Expert Opinion Multicriteria decision analyses Valuing/decision/economic Relevance tree Descriptive and matrices, Valuing/decision/economic Risk analysis Descriptive and matrices, Valuing/decision/economic Roadmapping Descriptive and matrices Scenarios Scenarios Social impact assessment Descriptive and matrices Stakeholder analysis Descriptive and matrices, Valuing/decision/economic Sustainability analysis Descriptive and matrices, Modeling and simulation System dynamics Modeling and simulation Technology assessment Descriptive and matrices, Modeling and simulation TRIZ Creativity
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