The Government Accountability Office’s new technology assessment team published a handbook explaining its processes and providing a resource to other federal agencies—or any organization—trying to figure out whether a technology is right for its mission needs.
The Technology Assessment Design Handbook was published by GAO’s new Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics Office, a team established to look at emerging technologies and provide unbiased information to Congress and other government leaders. As part of its work, the STAA Office looks at a range of issues around budding technologies, including how their uses can and will affect society; the risks and benefits of implementing those technologies; the status, viability and maturity; and any planned or ongoing federal investments.
“GAO has defined [technology assessment] as the thorough and balanced analysis of significant primary, secondary, indirect and delayed interactions of a technological innovation with society, the environment and the economy and the present and foreseen consequences and impacts of those interactions,” the handbook reads. “The effects of those interactions can have implications.”
For GAO—and anyone else trying to determine whether a technology would help or hamper their efforts—the first step is developing a hard design plan and getting that down on paper.
“Data collection and quality assurance of data can be costly and time-consuming,” the handbook states. “A thorough consideration of design options can ensure that collection and analysis of the data are relevant, sufficient, and appropriate to answer the researchable question(s), and helps to mitigate the risk of collecting unnecessary evidence and incurring additional costs.”
The handbook breaks the process down into three phases.
Phase 1: Determine the Scope
Perform the initial “situational analysi ..
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