Technological forecasting

Methods and activities associated with anticipation of future technologies. Includes not only descriptions of the technologies themselves, but also the potential dates of introduction and often their intended and unintended consequences. These activities are useful to determine new product markets, to anticipate societal consequences of new developments, to allocate resources to the development of the most promising technologies, to evaluate competitive advantage, to develop means for countering threats, to stimulate creativity, and to direct research agendas. The methods can be quantitative or qualitative and include, for example, expert panels using Delphi or Real Time Delphi questionnaires, models such as the Fisher Pry substitution technique, Technology Sequence Analysis, historical analogy, Morphological Analysis and the Futures Wheel.