Towards A New Comprehensive Technology Audit Model

摘要

Technology auditing is one of the most important issues in practice and theory ofrntechnology management. Technology auditing is considered to be one of thernessential elements in technology planning (a central and decisive task of managersrnof technology). The main purpose of technology audit is to determine a presentrntechnological status of an organization and therefore to provide a valuablerninformation for possible improvement of organization?s technological capability.rnToday, there are several technology audit models, proposed by different authorsrnand used in different contexts. This variety of proposed models spurs manyrnfundamental questions pertaining to the issue of technology audit. In the paper, werntry to provide some thoughtful insight into the three elementary questions ofrntechnology auditing: (1) What exactly is the subject/focus of technology auditingrn(assessing)?, (2) According to what this subject should be assessed (criteria)?, (3)rnCan we build a model of that which is subjected to technology auditing (what kindrnof model and the way it is modeled)? In the first part of the paper, we present arnshort description of basic properties of three of the existing technology auditrnmodels (Garcia-Arreola, Rush et al., Mohammad et al.) that were designed forrnapplication in specific organizations and not for general use; thereupon, wernpresent our comments on these models and we point out some of therninsufficiencies and critical elements of these models. Rather than directly trying tornsuggest how to overcome these insufficiencies, we first present our idea on whatrnthe principle of adequate technology auditing in organizations could be – wernpresent and explain a model of technological capability audit in organizations. Wernsuggest what a subject of technology audit should be and according to whatrncriteria organizations should be assessed regarding technology. This principle ofrnadequate technology auditing in organizations contains some of the fundamentalrncategories in management of technology: technology, technological capability,rntechnological capability modeling. In the second part of the paper, we thus presentrnour conceptualization of these fundamental categories. We base ourrnconceptualization of technology on modern technological practice (in companies)rnand we conclude that technology essentially revolves around machines, devicesrnand processes of material production. Thereupon, we suggest that technologicalrncapability could be conceptualized as a capacity of an organization to purposefullyrnuse technology as one of its resources. And finally, we propose a way of howrntechnological capability could be theoretically modeled and what is the purpose ofrnsuch modeling for development of specific technology audit models. We brieflyrnpresent and explain a theoretical technological capability model, consisting of 7rninterrelated parts (Purposes & means, Types of technology and its connection tornpurposes, Technology personnel, Technology management, Technologyrnproblems, Technology environment & Technology forecasting, Basic elements ofrntechnological capability.