Growing Pains: Evolution of OTA’s Process of Technology Assessment

Abstract

For any given OTA assessment a great deal of effort went into defining the detailed scope of the work. Since the agency often received more requests than it could accommodate, for prospective topics requested by a congressional committee, the OTA stafi’often consulted with other committees of jurisdiction and interest to be as broadly responsive as possible and to help establish priorities fairly. Formal proposals for assessments were considered by TAB and, if approved, an assessment commenced with funds drawn from OTA’s annual appropriation. Key elements of each OTA assessment included a comprehensive advisory panel of technical experts and relevant stakeholders; a core OTA project team including an experienced project director; contractors selected to support major analytical tasks; in-house research efforts by the project team; workshops convened with additional experts and stakeholders to obtain the most current and accurate information possible; extensive external peer review of draft reports; and dissemination of reports through congressional hearings, briefings, and public release.