Product Life cycle

Business cycle: time to react to market issues
Development cycle: time to develop/deploy IT internally

Technology cycle: time external technology becomes available, updated, or obsolete.

Development cycle usually longer than business cycle; move towards agile methodologies reflects effort to match the two.

Technology cycle usually longer than development cycle; move towards enterprise technical architecture reflects efforts to coordinate.
Four tech cycle patterns can impact development and business cycles: firefly; undercooked; conveyor belt; and landfill.
Firefly technologies: promising technologies that light up, vanish, then reappear farther away (forever in pre-release). Waiting for firefly technologies may seriously impact both development and business cycles.
Underdone technologies: available now, but not yet ready for prime time (e.g., version 1.0.0). Adoption and deployment may undermine stability of in-house technologies and processes.
Conveyor belt technologies: available and stable, but with too short a lifespan due to market issues or third-party dependencies. Adoption may result in a second transition to other technologies sooner than planned.

Landfill technologies: available, stable, but may not be worth adopting due to TCO, compatibility issues, or insufficient advantages over existing technologies. In effect, DOA.

Ask yourself:
Is it shipping?
Is it stable?
Is it going to be around for a long time?
Is it better than what I have now or can get soon?