Applying Project Management in Technology Transition— A Bird’s-Eye View

A typical technology life cycle has five phases, as shown in Figure 1 on the next page. Technology transition consists of a set of coordinated activities that help the technology move forward from the adoption phase to the support phase. Strong emphasis should be given to risk management and mitigation to tackle any service interruptions.

A transition will not be successful without proper scheduling, communication and risk management based on modern project management practices. Normally the transition starts with the adoption phase and ends  once a sustainable support framework and team have been established. A major challenge of these adoption and support phases is to manage the technical and functional knowledge of the product or service by minimizing knowledge leak as much as possible.

Because there are limited industry best practices available for knowledge management and documentation, the success criteria depends mostly on the effectiveness of “due-diligence” and the expertise of the people involved, coupled with strong human resource management. Extensive planning, forecasting and clear thinking are vital to ensuring that a product or service will complete the transition from the innovation phase to the “retire” phase (Figure 2).

Transition Planning and Controlling

A successful transition is not …