Modeling the Impact of Technology Transition on Ship Operational Capabilities

During Phase I, we experimented with several transition approaches and ran into three hurdles: 1) No matter how good the method for transitioning technology, if the development process has not been well-managed, there will be no technology to transition; 2) Transition does not happen without an incredible amount of expertise and data; 3) Good technology does not matter if no one is aware of its existence; the corollary is that people developing technology need to know requirements. We see the transition of technology in a three-phased process: Macro, Evaluative and Micro. The Macro phase is determining the overall need, the Evaluative phase is the analysis of technology vis-à-vis need and the micro phase is the collection of information necessary for decision-making. We will create a tool that can be used to manage the day-to-day activities of technology development and in doing so capture the necessary data and knowledge upon which transition can be based. Our approach will be to understand the “patterns of need” of various and potential users of the system. We will then use this knowledge to evolve management techniques and tools Beacon has been developing for the past 12 years for an integrated and collaborative solution.