Techniques for Favorable Technology Assessment and Successful Technology Infusion

What do technology users or system architects look for when assessing new tools or system components?  Once they have a cursory understanding about what the new tool or system component can do, how do they calculate the chances of that tool or component meeting their needs or integrating into their existing or developing system?  What are the communication vehicles by which users and, subsequently, decision-makers  get the information they need?  How important is the user experience with the communication vehicles (e.g., project or tool website)?  What impact does the user experience with the communication vehicles have upon successful technology infusion?  For the technology developer and the architect, are there interoperability criteria that could be used during development that would facilitate the favorable assessment  of a technology?  At what point in development should communication about the tool / component be generated to increase the changes of technology infusion?In this session, we will investigate some of the factors affecting technology assessment and technology infusion and review, and suggest, approaches that can be used by both assessors and developers to increase the success rate for use of technologies into new environments.