Technology transfer is of crucial concern to both government and industry today. In this report, the mechanisms developed by NASA to transfer technology are explored and the actual mechanisms used to transfer software development technologies are investigated. Time, cost, and effectiveness of software engineering technology transfer is reported.
Technology transfer is of crucial concern to both government and industry today.
We examine the established NASA mechanisms for achieving technology transfer and then address in some detail several successful examples of software engineering technology transfer. We analyze these examples and provide conclusions and suggestions of how the practice of technology transfer is perceived to work within NASA and how it actually works. In particular, this report distinguishes between the concept of technology transfer, or the adoption of a new method by large segments of an industry, and technology infusion, or the adoption of a new technology by an individual organization. A version of this paper appears as Zelkowitz M. V., Software Engineering technology infusion within NASA, IEEE Trans. It is important that we be able to understand this concept and identify how we can best collect data needed to validate software methods that seem to be effective.