• automatic definition
• tech field definition
• text mining

The first task of a project is delineating the scope. A wrong scope definition can determine extra costs, extra times, or a low quality of the output, which, in the worst case, can lead to project failure. These aspects become more relevant in innovation projects in technological fields, characterized by a highly dynamic environment: multidisciplinarity, turbulence and uncertainty. In these cases, the boundaries are not easily detectable and it’s difficult to decide what it is in-scope and out-of-scope.
The present work proposes a useful tool in scope delineation process, that automatically tries to define an innovative technological field or a new technology. The tool is based on Text Mining approach to identify in Elsevier's Scopus abstracts the relevant data. The automatic definition tool is validated on some case studies (e.g. Artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, Machine learning, Chatbot, Data science). The results show how the tool can provide many crucial information in the definition process of a technological field, in particular for the target technological field (or technology), it provides the definition, the synonyms and other elements related to the target.