A Method for Emerging Technology Evaluation. Application to Blockchain and Smart Data Discovery

Emerging technologies represent a major innovation that offers significant advances to both private and public organizations. Examples of these technologies are the “Blockchain technology” which combines cryptographic mechanisms and peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture and “Smart Data Discovery” combining artificial intelligence and analytics. The importance of these emerging technologies requires the use of evalua-tion methods in order to understand their contribution and the associat-ed risks. The objective of this article is to propose a method supporting the evaluation of emerging technologies. A guidance approach is pro-posed. It is based on the recognition that emerging technologies are complex systems. Our approach combines three conceptual frame-works: the underlying theory of complex information systems, systems theory, and the ISO 25001 standard devoted to software quality. We propose a multi-criteria hierarchy which serves as the basis for the eval-uation. To illustrate this approach, we apply it to the particular cases of “Blockchain” technology and “Smart Data Discovery”.