[The 9-HI™ Basics] How Organizations Select and Develop Technologies

Overview

All Enterprises and Government Organizations that seek improvement, growth and competitiveness typically seek compelling new Technologies to assist or drive these goals. In 9-HI™, Enterprises are further defined as Academic or Industrial in nature. Government is any federal, state or municipal political entity. Public Universities are considered as Enterprises. Regardless of its type, these organizations acting as Groups can use 9-HI™ for Selection or Development of Technologies that they need. Traditionally an Organization will either acquire a Technology or develop a Technology for use in their operations or to add to their product or services that are for sale. In both cases the Selection and/or Development of Technologies can represent potentially very high Risk and also very high reward. Excellent Technology adoption can lead to stellar performance and poor Technology adoption can lead to lackluster performance or even devastating decline of an organization depending on how critical the need is to their success.

Selection

Selection is used when the Organization wants to acquire a Technology. They may buy it outright from the owner or they may license the right to use or make the Technology. Sometimes the Technology is perfect as is and sometimes it needs modification or "development" to suit their or their customers needs. A Selection process usually starts off with a problem or need identification. Caution should always be used at this early stage to ensure that the root cause of a problem is understood and that the proper problem or need is really captured and defined properly. After problem identification has occurred, then Requirements for Solutions occurs to start to define any Technology needs that can be applied. Often at this stage both requirements generation and solution discovery may occur either as sequential steps or in a combined activity. When 9-HI™ is applied to this stage of the process, we need to identify the Risks (gaps, barriers, and vulnerabilities) that are associated with the problem/need and additionally with the Technology solution. After Risks are identified, we then seek 9-HI™ Success Factors (SFs) to specifically address those Risks. Success Factors are also derived from requirements and objectives for the new Technology. As the Group is maturing its Risks and SFs, it needs to start to plan its Acquisition Cycle. Options in 9-HI™ for elements of the Acquisition Cycle include Pitch Events, Request for Information (RFIs), Brief RFIs, Request for White Paper (RWPs), and Request for Proposal (RFPs). Each of these is slightly different. Sometimes a Group will just send out an RFP when the needs and potential supply options are well known. If they are unsure or would like to have a more conservative approach, the enterprise may issue a brief RFI or an RFI, as a market study, to determine what suppliers and Technology options are available to them in the marketplace for further consideration or refinement of Risks and SFs. Government organizations often progress from an RFI to a RWP or Pitch Event to an RFP in a structured manner to progressively narrow down the field of options for final selection. 9-HI™ has been developed to manage a single selection Project like a stand alone RFP or to manage multiple selection Projects strung together as an Acquisition Cycle. An Acquisition Cycle is relatively easy to establish as tools are available to import and link say an RFI to a RWP or a Pitch Event to an RFP, etc. After selection of a Technology has occurred, it can either be deployed or used in a development program depending on the intention of the project. 9-HI™ guides the selection of Technologies by providing a comprehensive holistic process with quantitative measures and expertise from our AI Agents and from your selected Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Development

Development always occurs after a Selection Event, so long as development is warranted. Whether there is a formal process such as an Acquisition Cycle with potential suppliers, or whether corporate, government or academic leadership have determined to use their own "organic" resources from within their organization, some sort of selection occurs to determine what Technology will be developed. Some of the most critical aspects to determine early in the development activity are: What's the Technology?, Who is the Team and Stakeholders involved? and What is the end Application? In addition developers and/or leadership are urged to determine the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) starting level and TRL exit level for development. Not all development programs exit at TRL 9 especially is they start at low TRL levels. 9-HI™ guides people through these processes. The 9-HI™ 2-tier Powerset is organized specifically to address the three questions above and the US Air Force and NASA have done a fine job of refining TRLs. Between these two constructs developers have a strong fighting chance of being successful in Development Projects. The 9-HI™ Development Project cycle utilizes Long-Term SFs and Short-Term SFs that address long and short-term risks. Long-Term Risks and SFs are related to the overall process from Entry TRL to Exit TRL which may be deployment and commercialization if there's an exit at TRL 9. But to progress from TRL to TRL along the way, we also identify Short-Term SFs that have the express purpose of reaching goals of a specific TRL within a Development Project so that the Development Project can transition to the next higher TRL. The 2-Tier powerset and supporting FPMs require different scores depending on what TRL is present at the time. The short-term and long-term SF roll up to calculate the FPM score. The FPM scores represent the TRL status of that FPM. The LOWEST FPM Score out of the 9 FPMs dictates what the Topic TRL level is. In order for the project to be considered for transition to the next TRL, all FPM scores must reach that TRL number.