Automatically Generating the Technology Compatibility Matrix Using Graph Transformations

One of the first stages during technology evaluation and selection is constructing the technology compatibility matrix, which indicates the compatibility of each pair in a technology portfolio. Construction of the technology compatibility matrix usually involves subjective expert judgment, which inhibits assessing each pair consistently and storing the decision rationale. Therefore, this study develops a method based on graph transformations, allowing for a formal theoretical description of technologies. In order to automate this process, two algorithms use these graph transformations to deduce technology compatibility and dependencies between technologies. The first checks whether changes made by a pair of transformations are compatible with each other. The second defines dependencies for each technology and attempts to resolve these using other technologies. The method is put into practice for a technology portfolio within Saab Aeronautics and the automatically generated compatibility matrix is compared to a pre-existing expert-judgment-based matrix for the same portfolio. Roughly 90% of the entries in the algorithm-based TCM are identical to the expert-based TCM. Therefore, the automated method is capable of capturing much of human reasoning in this context. However, in order to fully agree with human expertise, physics and design reasoning should be included to expand the scope of inference.