Using reviews of special reports and personal interviews with team members of recent National Science Foundation-sponsored assessments, the authors have assembled an eight-step functional strategy for conducting technology assessments. The steps are set within a framework that embodies the three key elements of all assessments: technology descripti

Joe E. Armstrong is a senior partner of Armstrong Associates, a research firm specializing in technology assessment and related study methodologies. He has had extensive experience in large-scale engineering studies, having directed electronic system laboratories for Sylvania and ESL, Inc., before turning to government and industry consulting. Willis W. Harman is associate director of the Center for the Study of Social Policy at SRI International and is a professor in the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University.