Technology readiness levels at 40: A study of state-of-the-art use, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

The technology readiness level (TRL) scale was introduced by NASA in the 1970s as a tool for assessing the maturity of technologies during complex system development. TRL data have been used to make multi-million dollar technology management decisions in programs such as NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover. This scale is now a de facto standard used for technology assessment and oversight in many industries, from power systems to consumer electronics. Low TRLs have been associated with significantly reduced timeliness and increased costs across a portfolio of US Department of Defense programs. However, anecdotal evidence raises concerns about many of the practices related to TRLs. We study TRL implementations based on semi-structured interviews with employees from seven different organizations and examine documentation collected from industry standards and organizational guidelines related to technology development and demonstration. Our findings consist of 15 challenges observed in TRL implementations that fall into three different categories: system complexity, planning and review, and validity of assessment. We explore research opportunities for these challenges and posit that addressing these opportunities, either singly or in groups, could improve decision processes and performance outcomes in complex engineering projects.2

Integration Readiness levels Evaluation and Systems Architecture: A Literature Review

“…So even that the technology is mature, using this technology in new applications may be challenging, and the TRL scale usually does not represent the challenge of integrating the technology in a space system. Olechowski, Eppinger and Joglekar (2015) investigated the use of the TRL scale in different industrial sectors through interviews and analyzes on industry standards and organizational guidelines. These authors (Olechowski et al, 2015) found that the TRL scale is widely used in different complex systems industries and identified fifteen challenges to improve the TRL scale utilization, categorized in three topics: system complexity, planning and review, and assessment validity.…”

“…Olechowski, Eppinger and Joglekar (2015) investigated the use of the TRL scale in different industrial sectors through interviews and analyzes on industry standards and organizational guidelines. These authors (Olechowski et al, 2015) found that the TRL scale is widely used in different complex systems industries and identified fifteen challenges to improve the TRL scale utilization, categorized in three topics: system complexity, planning and review, and assessment validity. Subsequently, Tomaschek, Olechowski, Eppinger and Joglekar (2016) conducted a survey with TRL scale practitioners in different industries worldwide to identify, among the fifteen identified challenges, which were the most priority challenges.…”

“…The Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) scale was developed to support decision making in relation to the introduction of technologies during the development of complex systems (Mankins, 2009). Although this scale has been used for decades, it does not reflect well the integration of technological elements into the system architecture, and its application has other challenges related to system complexity, project planning, subjectivity and imprecision of the scale (Olechowski, Eppinger, & Joglekar, 2015).…”

“…Many techniques used for space systems development were conceived at the time of the space race, where the projects had large budget and greater continuity in planning (D. Hastings, 2004;Ross, Hastings, Warmkessel, & Diller, 2004). Given the current scenario of greater technological, commercial, political and application uncertainties, spacesystem architectures must face such uncertainties (D. E. Hastings, Weigel, & Walton, 2003), and technology readiness assessment methodologies should be updated (Olechowski et al, 2015). The Integration Readiness Levels (IRL) scale was proposed to represent the maturity of the integration between technological elements of a system (Sauser, Verma, Ramirez-Marquez, & Gove, 2006) and has been evolving over the last decade.…”

A Tool for Systematically Accessing the Level of Readiness of Engineering Design in Product Development

“…Its application was mostly to manage and monitor the risk of acquisition of technologies in different stages of development [7,8]. However, the adaptation of the TRL in different industries, encountered challenges in terms of its integration and connectivity, scope of TRL assessment, product road mapping or imprecision of the scales [9,10].…”