Emerging Technology Planning: The STREET Framework (Scope, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelize, Transfer)

The goal of emerging technology planning is to manage the evaluation, introduction, and deployment of new technologies to most effectively advance a company’s strategic objectives, with a defined process that captures best practices.

Scope

The Scope stage defines business focus and context for emerging‑technology investment, identifying organizational goals, risk tolerance, and desired outcomes, and may include competitive analysis, visioning, scenario building, and opportunity identification.

Track

The Track stage searches broadly for relevant technologies that match the defined scope, assesses their maturity, potential business applications, and advocates, and communicates findings for further decision‑making.

Rank

During Rank, technologies are ordered by potential impact within acceptable risk levels, comparing value across candidates and highlighting resource trade‑offs, making it a critical yet often overlooked step.

Evaluate

In the Evaluate stage, top‑ranked candidates undergo written and hands‑on investigations, prototyping, and trials to determine value, reduce uncertainty, and decide whether to proceed.

Evangelize

Because technology champions often lack authority, the Evangelize stage focuses on motivating, educating, and engaging stakeholders through marketing, training, networking, and advocacy to secure cooperation for adoption.

Transfer

Finally, Transfer moves responsibility for the technology to the department or project that will fully deploy it, emphasizing knowledge transfer and close collaboration between experts and implementers.

The process is iterative and non‑linear, with continuous feedback between stages.

Additional information and community resources are provided for further discussion, including links to WeChat groups, QQ groups, video channels, and various architecture‑focused websites.