There are four phases of the Technology Life Cycle, including Research and Development, Growth, Maturity and Inevitable Decline. The key aspects of each phase are outlined below:

1. Research and Development: During this stage costs far outweigh the return and the technology’s future is still uncertain. This stage also includes the introduction to the market, where beta-testing can take place and further improvements can be made to the product.
2. Growth Stage: This phase is where the formal introduction to the market occurs and adoption and utilization rates are very high. Profits are made in this phase.
3. Maturity: At this point in the process the market is saturated and the number of new users flattens out. The technology can continue to be profitable, however, by incrementally improving the product, thus creating the need among consumers for newer versions every so often.
4. Inevitable Decline: During this stage sales decrease and a replacement technology is on the horizon. The need for incremental improvements drops along with sales of the product. The best action plan at this stage is to reduce or eliminate funding related to this technology and put those resources into a new project.

Unlike most traditional Technology Life Cycle Model techniques, Praxie’s online Technology Life Cycle Model tools allow any team or organization to instantly begin working with our web templates and input forms.

Technology Life Cycles roughly map to the market adoption curve so that the evolution of a given technology moves through the customer adoption phases of Early Adopters, Visionaries, Pragmatists, Conservatives and Laggards.  

Various Project Management methods, Risk Assessments and Process Maps can all be used to provide insights, data and additional support when using the Technology Life Cycle Model method. Get started with our Technology Life Cycle Model template. 

How to use it:

1. Map your technologies, products/services, and key customer needs being addressed across the Life Cycle.  
2. Align your thinking to the different Life Cycle phases. 
3. Create your action plan to ensure you effectively move through the different phases with your technologies, products, services, and overall strategy for addressing your key customer needs. 

Our digital platform goes far beyond other software tools by including progress dashboards, data integration from existing documents or other SaaS software, elegant intuitive designs, and full access on any desktop or mobile device.