GAO has released a draft of a new guide designed to help federal agencies, along with state and local governments, assess the technology readiness of their projects.
“Managing technology maturity in today’s increasingly complex, technology-centric systems is a vital tool for reducing risk in program acquisition and management,” GAO said in releasing the document for comment. “The best practices presented in GAO’s guide should help agencies better manage the critical technologies and related costs that often are a major source of risk in acquiring advanced systems and projects.”
The Technology Readiness Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Evaluating the Readiness of Technology for Use in Acquisition Programs and Projects describes best practices for developing and producing a reliable, high-quality technology readiness assessment, with a goal of helping practitioners, program managers, technology developers, and governance bodies better understand technology maturity, conduct credible technology readiness assessments, and develop plans for technology maturation efforts, said GAO.
“With these criteria, program managers and technology developers will be better equipped to evaluate technology maturity, gauge progress, and identify and manage risk in today’s advanced systems acquisition and technology development environment,” GAO said. “Government auditors will also be better able to evaluate agencies’ decisions about technology readiness.”
GAO plans to use the guide in auditing agencies’ assessments of technologies in their major acquisition programs, it added.
